BR  749  .H68  1917   v. 3 

Howorth,  Henry  H.  1842-1923. 

The  golden  days  of  the  earl^ 

English  church  from  the 


THE  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  THE 
EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 


^ "^ '     ^"^i 

^1 


%^#i#'  - 


.a-ij 


J^^iiSi^^^i-:^ 


Oknamknial  Inhiai.  Lki  fkr  oi-  tiik  Gospel  of  St.  John  in  the 

LiNDlSFARNE    MS. 


/■,'/.  ///.,  Front i.<!/>icce.] 


THE  GOLDEN  DAYS 

OF   THE   EARLY 

ENGLISH  CHURCH 

FROM  THE  ARRIVAL  OF  THEODORE 
TO  THE  DEATH  OF  BEDE 


By  Sir  HENRY  H.   HOWORTH 

K.C.I.E.,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  F.S.A. 

PRESIDENT   OF   THE   ROYAL   ARCHyROLOGICAL   INSTITUTE   AND 
TRUSTEE   OF   THE   BRITISH    MUSEUM 

AUTHOR   OF 

'the  LIVES  OF  POPE  GREGORY  THE  GREAT  AND  AUGUSTINE  THE  MISSIONARY' 

"the  HISTORY  OF  THE  MONGOLS"  ETC.    ETC. 


WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS 
MAPS,   TABLES,   AND   APPENDICES 


VOL.  Ill 


NEW    YORK 

E.    P.    BUTTON    AND    COMPANY 

1917 


All  rii^hts  reserved 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XI 

PACK 

St.  Cuthberht    .......        i 

CHAPTER  XII 
St.  Cuthberht's  Contemporaries,  Friends,  and  Pupils    io6 


APPENDIX  I 
The  Royal  and  High-Born  Nuns    .  .  .  •    i75 

APPENDIX  II 
Archbishop  Theodore's  Penitential        .  .  .    238 

APPENDIX  III 

CiEDMON,   THE   MORNING   STAR   OF  ENGLISH   POETRY  .     262 

APPENDIX  IV 

The  Memorial  Crosses  of  the  Seventh  Century  in 

Northern  England  .....    302 

APPENDIX  V 

The  Codex  Amiatinus  of  the  Bible:  Its  History  and 

Importance  .     .    .     .     .    .     .321 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES 

Volume      I         ....           .  .    339 

Volume    II          .           .           .           .           .  .          .361 

Volume  III          .          .           .           .           .  .           -384 

Index         .           .           .          .           .           .  .           .395 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

Ornamental   Initial   Letter    of   the    Gospel  of   St. 

John  in  the  Lindisfarne  MS.    .  .  .  Frontispiece 

FACING    PAGE 

Map  of  Farne  Island  .  .  .  .  .  .20 

Eyre,  St.  Cjithberht,  p.  42. 

The  Cross  of  Bishop  Trumberht    .  .  .  .32 

Bishop  Browne,  Theodore  and  Wilfrith^  p.  162. 

The   Coffin   of   St.   Cuthberht,    restored    from    its 

Remains  in  the  Library  of  Durham  Cathedral   .      68 

The  Feretory  of  St.  Cuthberht,  at  Durham    .  .      82 

From  Smith's  Bede,  p.  264. 

Details  of  St.  Cuthberht's  Coffin  .  .  94,  96 

From  Raine's  St.  Cuthberht. 

St.  Cuthberht's  Portable  Altar  and  Pectoral  Cross      98 

From  Bishop  Browne,  op.  cit.  pp.  105,  279. 

Section   of   the    Shaft   of    the   Supposed    Cross    of 

Bishop  ^Ethelwold  .....    104 

Specimens  of  the  Writing  in  the  Lindisfarne  MS., 
including  the  Description  of  those  who  put  it 
together,  a  Portion  of  the  Text  with  Glosses, 
AND  an  Ornamented  Capital    .  .  .  .108 

From  Westwood,  Palceographia  Biblica,  Plate  45. 

Ornamental   Letter   from  the  Gospel  of   St.   Luke 

IN  the  Lindisfarne  MS.  .  .  .  .  .112 

Initial  Page  of  One  of  tpie  Five  Divisions  of  the 

Lindisfarne  MS.    .  .  .  .  .  .116 

A  Similar  Page  with  Different  Pattern  .  .118 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  vii 

FACING    PAGE 

The  Acca  Cross  .  .  .  .  .  .144 

Details  of  Acca's  Cross         .  .  .  .  .146 

Ivory  Tablet  in  the  British  Museum  commemorating 

St.  Eanswitha         .  .  .  .  .  .186 

Crosses  of  Heiu  and  Bregusuid  found  at  Hartlepool. 
With  these  I  have  placed  a  Fragment  of  a  Cross 
of  Larger  Size  and  somewhat  Different  Pattern 
from  the  same  Place       .  .  .  .  .188 

Hubner,  Insc.  Brit.,  pp.  63,  69,  70. 

Memorial  Cross  of  Hildithryth  (probably  St.  Hilda), 
found  at  Hartlepool      .  .  .  .  .188 

lb.  p.  69. 

Memorial    Crosses    of    Hildegyth,    Berchtgyd,    and 

Kanegut  (.?),  found  at  Hartlepool    .  .        188,  190 

lb.  pp.  69,  70. 

Seal  of  Archdeacon  Boniface,  found  at  Whitby        .    202 

From  Haigh,  Yorks.  Arch,  and  Top.  Soc.  Jouni.,  vol.  iii.  p.  370. 

Memorial  Crosses  of  Oedilburga  and  Trecca  .  .    202 

Hubner,  op.  cit.  pp.  66,  67. 

Memorial  Stone  of  Huaetburga     ....    202 

Hubner,  op.  cit.  p.  66. 

Supposed  Reliquary  of  St.  Cyniburga  at  Peterborough, 
AND  Base  of  the  Cross  of  Owin,  St.  ^theldrytha's 
Steward,  from  Haddenham,  Cambridgeshire  .    202 

Hubner,  op.  cit.  p.  6i. 

The  Boundaries  of  Eormenberga's  Estate  in  Thanet, 

marked  by  the  Course  traversed  by  a  Hunted  Deer    226 

From  Thomas  of  Elmham's  Chronicle,  Rolls  Series. 

The  Figures  of  Christ  on  the  Ruthwell  and  Bew- 
castle  Crosses,  showing  their  Close  Resemblance 
in  Style  and  pointing  to  the  same  Artist  and 
the  same  Period    ......    310 

From  Mr.  J.  C.  Montgomerie's  photograph. 


viii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING   PAGE 

Portion  of  a  Cross  at  Jedburgh,  of  the  same  Style 
AND  Ornament  as  one  side  of  that  at  Bewcastle 

AND   OF  SOME   OF  THE   FRAGMENTS  AT   HeXHAM  .      312 

We  have  no  evidence  as  to  the  person  by  whom  or  to  whom 
this  Jedburgh  Cross  was  erected.  See  Stuart,  Sculptured 
Stones  of  Scotland. 

Dedication  of  the  Codex  Amiatinus  in  its  present 

Altered  Form        ......    322 

Plan   of   the   Jewish    Tabernacle,  from   the    Codex 

Amiatinus    .......    324 

Ezra  writing  his  Bible  Text,  from  the  Codex 
Amiatinus \  to  be  compared  with  the  Figure  of 
St.  Matthew  in  the  Lindisfarne  MS.,  opposite 
page  328        .......    326 

Figure  of   St.   Matthew  writing    his    Gospel,   from 

THE  Lindisfarne  MS.       .....    328 

See  Westwood,  op.  cit.  Plate  45. 

Plan  of  the  Crypt  at  Repton         ....    386 
East  End  of  the  Church  at  Cor  bridge  .  .  .    386 


Note. — I  am  greatly  indebted  to  the  Authors  and  Publishers  of 
the  works  I  have  quoted  for  their  permission  to  use  the  plates  I 
have  borrowed  from  them. 


THE    GOLDEN    DAYS 

OF   THE 

EARLY    ENGLISH    CHURCH 

CHAPTER   XI 

ST.  CUTHBERHT 

We  will  now  turn  from  the  Civil  history  of 
Northumbria  at  this  time  to  its  Ecclesiastical 
history.  The  most  prominent  figure  in  it  was 
doubtless  Cuthberht,  not  that  he  fills  any  notable 
place  among  the  makers  of  history,  but  that  in 
romance  and  popular  estimation  the  ascetic  hermit 
of  Fame  outweighs  all  his  clerical  contemporaries  in 
the  north,  in  fame  and  in  the  potency  he  exercised 
not  only  when  living  but  more  especially  after  he 
was  dead.  I  shall  take  it  for  Qrranted  here  that 
the  Irish  legend  of  the  origin  of  Cuthberht  is  a 
fable,  as  I  have  shown  in  the  introduction.  His 
name  is  English,  and  in  his  poetical  life  of  the 
Saint,  Bede  says  he  was  born  in  Britain.^  It  is, 
nevertheless,  a  strange  proof  of  the  power  of  some 
legends  that  Ussher,  Ware,  Colgan,  and  even  Dr. 
Reeves  in  his   notes   to   Wattenbach  should  have 

^  Op.  cit.  chap.  i. 
VOL.  in. — I 


2  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

countenanced    the    view,     and     it    was     certainly 
countenanced  very  largely  at  Durham. 

It  is  clear  from  the  absence  of  any  reference  to 
the  place  of  his  birth  or  to  his  parentage  that  he 
was  of  humble  origin.  Bede  claims  that  he  had 
heard  a  story  about  his  early  life  from  Trumwine, 
the  Bishop  of  the  Picts/  who  had  been  told  it  by 
Cuthberht  himself.  It  illustrates  the  extravagant 
ascetic  views  then  prevailing,  which  extended  even 
to  small  children,  who  were  taught  that  it  was 
really  wicked  to  jest  and  play  games  with  other 
boys.  Cuthberht  excelled  at  such  pastimes,  and 
was  a  leader  in  them,  and  never  seemed  to  weary, 
notably  at  leaping,  running,  wrestling,  or  standing 
on  his  head.  One  day  a  number  of  boys,  Cuthberht 
being  one,  were  engaged  in  a  wrestling  match  in 
a  meadow,  when  a  small  boy  of  about  three  years 
old  ran  up  to  him  and  exhorted  him  not  to 
indulge  in  such  idle  sports,  but  to  subject  his  mind 
as  well  as  his  limbs  to  a  grave  deportment.  When 
Cuthberht  took  no  heed  of  what  he  said,  the  small 
boy  began  to  weep  bitterly  and,  addressing  him, 
asked  how  he  who  had  been  consecrated  by  God 
to  teach  even  his  elders  could  thus  behave  and  be 
thus  frivolous  among  children.  Cuthberht  listened 
attentively,  and,  being  much  moved  by  what  the 
smaller  child  had  said,  altered  his  conduct,  "and 
thus,"  moralises  our  historian,  "the  wantonness  of 
a  boy  was  restrained  by  the  agency  of  a  child."  ^ 

A  story  like  this  is  the  despair  of  history,  for 

^  Bede,  H.E.^  iv.  12.  ^  Qp^  ^//,  chap.  iii. 


CUTHBERHTS  CHILDHOOD  3 

Cuthberht  must  himself  have  been  a  child  under  eieht 
years  at  the  time,  and  he  actually  told  the  story  of  him- 
self !  What  is  not  less  remarkable  is  Bede's  fillino-  so 
large  a  space  in  his  history  with  the  tale,  and  being 
evidently  in  full  sympathy  with  its  moral,  namely, 
that  it  was  wicked  for  children  to  romp  and  play. 
It  is  remarkable  that  a  thousand  years  later  the  same 
theories  in  recrard  to  children  were  revived  aeain  in 
the  same  form,  and  are  known  to  us  as  Puritanism  ! 

The  story  here  told  from  Bede  is  not  contained 
in  the  earlier  biography  of  the  Lindisfarne  monk. 
Of  Cuthberht's  early  life,  as  there  reported,  we  only 
know  that  he  was  brought  up  from  about  the  age 
of  eight  by  a  widow  named  Kenswith  or  Kensped, 
at  a  village  called  Hruringaham  or  Ruringaham. 
Mr.  C.  Bates  suggests  the  possibility  that  the 
harrying  of  Northumberland  by  Caedwalla  and 
Penda  after  the  death  of  ^dwin  in  6^,3  may  easily 
have  left  him  an  orphan  and  Kenswith  a  widow.^ 

The  first  incident  reported  of  Cuthberht,  both 
in  the  Anonymous  Life  and  by  Bede,  represents 
him  as  a  shepherd-boy  tending  his  master's  flock 

i"The  Home  of  St.  Cuthberht's  Boyhood,"  Arch.  AeL,  new 
series,  x.  155. 

The  same  ingenious  writer  says  that  this  Ruringaham  was 
probably  represented  by  a  farm  called  Wrangham  on  high  ground, 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the  north-east  of  Doddington,  in  Glendale, 
on  the  way  to  Lindisfarne,  and  he  contests  the  claims  of  the  Scotch 
writers  who  favour  a  village  six  miles  east  of  Melrose.  The  former  is 
generally  called  Wrangham  in  the  Dryburgh  muniments.  Mr.  Bates 
says  that  one  of  the  wells  at  Doddington  is  dedicated  to  St.  Cuthberht, 
while  a  cave  called  Cuddy's  Cave,  which,  according  to  uniform 
tradition,  was  once  inhabited  by  the  Saint,  is  situated  near  the  village 
of  Holborn  in  a  direct  line  between  Wrangham  and  Lindisfarne 
{lb.  158). 


4     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

[conmiendans  suis  pecora  quae  pascebit  dominis)  ^  on 
the  hills  bordering  the  river  Leder.  The  name 
of  the  river  is  given  in  the  former  authority  only. 
It  is  a  stream  now  called  the  Leader,  and  coming 
from  the  north  falls  into  the  Tweed  two  miles 
below  Melrose.^  Montalembert  compares  his  life 
there  with  that  of  the  shepherds  of  Hungary  in  the 
pustas  on  both  sides  of  the  Danube.^ 

While  his  companions  were  asleep,  Cuthberht, 
we  are  told,  saw  a  sudden  light  streaming  down 
from  above,  in  which  were  choirs  of  angels  coming 
down  from  heaven  and  then  returning  to  their 
heavenly  home  escorting  a  soul  of  exceeding  bright- 
ness, and  he  judged  that  he  must  have  been  either 
a  bishop  or  some  holy  man  among  the  faithful. 
When  morning  came  it  turned  out,  so  says  the 
saga,  that  Saint  Aidan  of  Lindisfarne  had  died  that 
very  night  and  at  the  time  when  Cuthberht  had  his 
vision.  The  shepherd  boy  thereupon  determined  to 
abandon  his  occupation  and  to  enter  a  monastery.* 

The  equation  between  this  story  and  Aidan's 
death  makes  it  probable  that  Cuthberht  adopted 
the  monastic  life  in  651,  and  in  that  year  it  is 
dated  by  Symeon  of  Durham.^ 

The  monastery  he  chose  was  close  to  his  own 
home,  namely,  that  of  Melrose,  then  called  Mailros.^ 

^  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.^  chap.  liv.  ^  Raine,  St.  Cuthberht^  p.  16. 

3  Op.  cit.  iv.  381. 

*  Vit.  Ano?i.^  par.  8  ;  Bede's  Prose  Life^  ch.  iv.  ;  Metr.  Life,  ch.  iv. 
^  i.  3. 

*  The  name  has  a  Celtic  etymology,  uiul  meaning  bare  and  rhos 
a  promontory  (see  Archbishop  Eyre,  Cuthberht,  13). 


CUTHBERHT  AT  MELROSE  5 

This,  says  Dr.  James  Raine,  is  not  the  reHgious 
house  which  we  know  so  well,  but  an  earlier 
monastic  establishment  a  short  distance  below  it, 
on  the  same  bank  of  the  Tweed.  The  site  of  it  is 
still  called  Old  Melrose.  It  is  on  a  green  sheltered 
slope  a  little  below  the  point  where  the  Tweed 
receives  the  scanty  waters  of  the  Leader,  and  then 
takes  a  bold  semicircular  sweep  under  the  woods 
and  rocks  of  Bemerside.^ 

Melrose  was  an  offshoot  from  Lindisfarne,  and 
its  foundation  was  attributed  to  St.  Aidan.  At  this 
time  Eata,  one  of  his  pupils  and  its  first  abbot,  was 
still  there,  and  Boisil  was  the  praepositus,  or  prior. 
Bede  describes  the  latter  as  possessing  many  virtues 
and  as  having  a  prophetic  spirit,  of  which  some 
reported  instances  will  be  related  presently. 
Another  Bosel,  or  Boisil,  became  the  first  Bishop  of 
Worcester.^  The  name  of  the  prior  survives  in 
the  little  town  of  St.  Boswells  on  the  Tweed,  and 
in  the  dedication  of  the  church  at  Tweedmouth.^ 

When  Cuthberht  applied  for  admission  into  the 
fraternity  at  Melrose,  Eata  was  away,  and  he  was 
received  by  Boisil,  who  foreseeing,  we  are  told,  the 
great  career  which  he  was  presently  to  have,  com- 
pared him  to  Nathaniel.  Bede  claims  that  this 
story  had  been  told  him  by  a  certain  Sigfred,  who 
was  a  youth  in  the  monastery  at  Melrose  at  the 
time.  He  afterwards  became  "a  devout  priest  and 
long-tried  servant  of  the  Lord  in  our  monastery," 

^  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.^  i.  725.  -  Vide  supra^  ii.  374,  388. 

3  Plummer,  ii.  267. 


6  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

that  Is  to  say,  at  Jarrow.  Bede  says  he  was  in 
failing  heahh,  but  he  seems  to  have  recovered  and 
eventually  become  Abbot  of  Wearmouth,  dying 
in  689. 

Bolsil  kept  Cuthberht  near  himself  and  cherished 
him.     A  few  days  later  Abbot  Eata  returned,  and 
he  received  permission  to  give  the  young  shepherd 
the  tonsure  and  to  install  him  as  one  of  the  brother- 
hood, among  whom  he  became  conspicuous  for  his 
diligence  in  reading,  working,  watching,  and  praying. 
He  was  strong  and  vigorous,  and,  Bede  says,  that, 
like  Samson,   who  was    a    Nazarite,    he    abstained 
from  intoxicating  drinks,  but  otherwise  he  did  not 
exercise  exceptional  abstinence  in  his  food,  as  he 
did  not  wish  to  unfit  himself  for  his  necessary  work. 
We  have  seen  how  King  Oswy's  son  Alchfrid, 
for    the    redemption    of    his    soul,    gave     Abbot 
Eata  a  domain    in    his   kingdom   called    Inhrypun 
{i.e.    Ripon)    where    to    construct    a    monastery.^ 
Taking    some    of    the     brethren     with     him,     of 
whom     Cuthberht     was    one,     Eata     founded     a 
monastery    there,    instituting    the    same    rule    as 
existed  at   Melrose.     There    Eata   became   abbot, 
continuing  to  hold  the  same  post  at  Melrose,  while 
Cuthberht   was  appointed   guest-master    or    hospi- 
taller.    While  he  held  the  office  he  was  reported 
to  have  entertained  an  angel.     The  saga  Is  prettily 
told,  and  is  worth  repeating.     One  day,  going  out 

'  Archbishop  Eyre  says  the  monastery  is  reported  to  have  stood 
between  Stainergate  and  Priest's  Lane,  and  to  have  been  called  the 
Scots  Monastery  {op.  cit.  17,  note). 


CUTHBERHT  AT  RIPON  7 

early  in  the  morning  from  the  inner  buildings 
of  the  monastery  to  the  guest-chamber,  he  found 
a  young  man  sitting  there,  and  thinking  he  was 
a  mortal  he  entertained  him  in  the  usual  way. 
He  gave  him  water  to  wash  his  hands  with, 
and  himself  bathed  his  feet,  wiped  them  with  a 
napkin  and  placed  them  in  his  bosom,  humbly 
chafing  them  with  his  hands,  as  was  apparently 
his  wont  with  travellers.  He  asked  him  to 
remain  till  the  third  hour  of  the  day,  that  he  might 
then  be  refreshed  with  food,  and  be  better  able  to 
face  the  snowy  blasts  which  he  would  meet.  The 
stranger  said  he  could  not  stay,  for  he  had  very 
far  to  go.  Cuthberht  still  pressed  him  to  remain, 
and  when  the  hour  of  tierce  had  arrived  and  meal- 
time was  at  hand,  he  laid  the  table  and  offered  his 
guest  food,  and  bade  him  refresh  himself  while  he 
went  out  to  get  some  newly  baked  bread.  When 
he  returned  his  guest  was  gone,  and  he  saw  no 
footprints  in  the  snow.  Thereupon  Cuthberht, 
who  greatly  wondered,  replaced  the  table  in  the 
inner  apartment,  on  entering  which  he  perceived 
a  sweet  fragrance  all  about,  and  looking  round 
he  saw  three  loaves  of  uncomrnon  whiteness  and 
beauty,  and  he  said  to  himself  that  an  angel  of 
God  must  have  visited  him.  He  had  come  to 
feed  and  not  to  be  fed,  since  the  loaves  were  such 
as  earth  cannot  produce.  They  surpassed  lilies  in 
whiteness,  roses  in  smell,  and  honey  in  flavour, 
and  must  have  come  from  the  paradise  of  Eden. 
From  that  time  so  greatly  did  his  sanctity  and  zeal 


8     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

increase,  that  he  was  often  allowed  to  see  and  con- 
verse with  angels,  and  when  hungry  was  refreshed 
with  food  specially  prepared  for  him  by  the  Lord/ 

In  66 1  Eata  and  the  brethren  he  had  with  him 
at  Ripon,  having  refused  to  follow  King  Alchfrid 
when  he  adhered  to  the  Roman  use,  returned  once 
more  to   Melrose,  and  were  replaced  at  Ripon  by 
St.  Wilfrid.     A  year  later  an  epidemic  broke  out 
in  the  north,  the  precursor  of  the  plague   of  664. 
A   year   later    still,    the    epidemic    was   ravaging 
England,    and   among  those    who    were   attacked 
and  succumbed  was  Boisil,  the  prior  of  the  abbeys 
at  Lindisfarne  and  Melrose.     Cuthberht  was  also 
attacked,   and  the  brethren  spent  all  the  night  in 
watching   and  praying  for    his  life    and    recovery. 
When  he  heard   of  what   they  had   done,    he    is 
reported  to  have  said  :  ''  What  am  I  doing  in  bed  ? 
It  is  impossible  that  God  should  shut  His  ears  to 
the  prayers  of  so  many  of  His  devout  servants !  " 
He  thereupon  asked  for  his  staff  and  hosen,  and, 
rising  up,  tried  to  walk,  leaning  on  his  crutch.      His 
strength  increased  daily,  and  the  glandular  swelling 
in  his  thigh  (which  was  one  of  the  usual  signs  of 
the  plague)  was  absorbed,  but  he  never  quite  got 
rid  of  its  effects,  and  he  continued  to  be  troubled 
with  pain  from   it  for  the  rest  of  his  life.      Boisil, 
who  survived  Cuthberht's  recovery  for  seven  days, 
is  said  by  Bede   to   have  foretold  his   own  death, 
and  that  the  pestilence  would  last  for  three   years 
before    it  would    overtake  Abbot   Eata,  when  he 

^  Vz'L  Anon.^  par.  12  ;  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.^  chap.  vii. 


CUTHBERHT  AT  RIPON  9 

too  would  be  taken  away,  not,  however,  by  the 
plague,  but  by  the  disease  which  the  doctors 
call  dysentery  [niordo  qtiein  dysente^Ham  viedici 
appellant).  This  also  came  about,  as  did  his 
prophecy  that  Cuthberht  would  become  a  bishop.^ 

When  Boisil  warned  his  pupil  Bede  that  he 
had  only  seven  days  to  live,  and  bade  him  diligently 
try  and  learn  while  he  himself  was  able  to  teach, 
Bede  asked  him  what  book  he  would  advise  them 
to  read  together  which  would  take  a  week  only 
to  get  through.  '*  St.  John  the  Evangelist,''  he 
replied,  ''for  my  copy  of  the  book  is  stitched  in 
seven  sections,  and  we  can  read  one  every  day."^ 

The  famous  relic-hunter,  ^^Ifrid  Westowe, 
claimed  to  have  removed  the  remains  of  Boisil 
from  Melrose  to  Durham,^  and  in  Segbrok's 
catalogue  of  relics,  dated  in  1383,  we  have 
recorded :  ''  The  scull  of  St.  Boysil  the  priest 
in  a  shrine  ornamented  with  silver  and  gold  and 
divers  images  ;  the  book  of  St.  Boysil,  the  school- 
master of  St.  Cuthberht ;  some  of  the  robes  and 
hair  of  St.  Boysil  the  priest  in  a  little  ivory  casket ; 
the  inner  tunic  of  St.  Boysil  the  priest  in  an  ivory 
turret,  with  images  of  gold  and  silver  wonderfully 
ornamented ;  the  comb  of  St.  Boysil  the  priest  in 
a  black  case." 

Boisil  was  succeeded  in  his  office  by  Cuthberht. 

^  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.,  chap.  viii. 

2  See  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.,  chap.  viii.  ;  Raine's  Bede,  19.  Turgot 
says  this  book  was  in  1000  still  kept  at  the  Church  of  Durham  {Sym. 
Du7i.,  i.  chap.  3).     As  we  shall  see,  it  is  probable  that  it  still  exists. 

^  Raine's  Cuthberht,  60. 


I  o  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

On  becoming  prior,  Cuthberht  did  not  relax  in 
his  zeal,  but,  as  Bede  puts  it,  he  worked  hard  at 
converting  the  surrounding  populace  far  and  wide. 
He  reports  how  many  of  them  had  profaned  religion 
by  their  evil  ways,  and  in  the  time  of  the  plague  had 
abandoned  the  sacrament  of  the  faith  which  they 
had  adopted,  and  had  had  recourse  to  the  remedies 
offered  by  their  old  idolatry,  and  by  means  of 
incantations  and  amulets,  and  other  mysteries  of 
demoniacal  art,  had  sought  to  arrest  the  pestilence 
which  had  been  sent  by  the  Almighty.  This,  as  it 
stands,  reads  rather  like  a  fatalistic  argument.^ 

Cuthberht  used,  like  his  master  Boisil,  to 
travel  about  the  country,  preaching  and  instructing 
the  people  in  the  neighbouring  villages.  ''It  was 
then  the  custom,"  says  Bede,  "when  a  clerk  or 
priest  came  to  a  village  for  all  the  villagers  to 
throng  and  hear  him."  Cuthberht  was  wont  to  visit 
remote  districts  situated  in  wild  mountainous  places 
"fearful  to  behold,"  where  it  was  difficult  from  the 
poverty  and  distance  to  supply  them  with  in- 
structors, and  where  the  old  ways,  no  doubt,  con- 

^  These  amulets  {alligaturae  they  are  called  in  the  biography  of 
the  Saint,  while  in  his  Eccl.  History  Bede  calls  them  phylacteries) 
were  used  by  the  early  Christians,  and  much  patronised  by  them. 
The  latter  took  them  over  from  paganism,  merely  changing  the 
formulae,  which  were  supposed  to  have  curative  properties.  Raine 
aptly  quotes  a  modern  instance  from  the  proceedings  of  the  Court 
of  the  Vicar-General  at  Durham  on  the  23rd  July  1604,  when  at 
Wooler  a  man  and  woman  were  charged  as  common  charmers  of 
the  sick,  "  who  used  to  bring  white  ducks  or  drakes,  and  to  sett 
their  bills  in  the  mouths  of  the  sick  persons,  meanwhile  mumbling 
uppe  their  charms  in  such  strange  manner  as  is  damnable  and 
horrible"  (Raine's  Cuthberht^  19,  note). 


CUTHBERHT  AS  AN  EVANGELIST  ii 

tinued  to  survive,  to  much  later  times,  in  spite 
of  all  effort.  He  was  often  away  for  a  week  or 
even  a  month  at  a  time  on  these  errands,  being 
all  the  time  in  the  mountains/  It  was  customary 
for  the  travelling  missionaries,  and  notably  for 
St.  Cuthberht,  to  use  tents  on  such  journeys.^ 

There  were,  in  remote  places,  lonely  groups 
of  shepherds'  huts,  which  having  been  roughly  put 
too^ether  in  summer  were  in  winter  ruinous  and 
deserted.  Stevenson  speaks  of  these  temporary 
habitations  being  still  to  be  seen  among  the  wilder 
Northumbrian  hills,  and  as  being  called  "  sheals  "  or 
*'  shealings,"  and  of  their  having  long  before  arrested 
the  attention  of  Camden  whea  he  visited  this  part  of 
the  country.  The  latter  says  of  them  :  "  All  over 
'the  wastes,'  as  they  call  them,  as  well  as  in  Gilsland, 
you  would  think  you  saw  the  ancient  noniadi,  a 
martial  sort  of  people  that  from  April  to  August  lie 
in  little  huts,  which  they  call  sheals  or  shealings, 
here  and  there  among  their  several  flocks."^ 

Once  when  Cuthberht  found  himself  benighted, 
he  entered  one  of  these  shealings  to  pass  the  night. 
He  tied  his  horse  to  a  ring  in  the  wall,  and  set 
before  it  a  bundle  of  hay,  or  rather  of  thatch, 
which  the  wind  had  blown  from  the  roof,  to 
eat,  and  meantime  spent  the  night  in  prayer. 
Suddenly  in  the  midst  of  the  psalmody  he  noticed 
the  horse  raise  its  head,  and  pulling  at  the  thatching 

^  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.^  chap.  ix. 

^  See  Bede,  Op.  Min..,  109-377  ;  "  tabernaculo  solemus  in  itinere 
vel  in  bello  uti^^  Bede,  O/.,  xii.  249  ;  Plummer,  Bede^  ii.  240. 
^  Camden,  Brit,  ed.,  1679. 


I  2     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

of  the  roof  draw  it  down.  There  fell  out  of  it  a 
folded  napkin,  in  which  the  Saint  found  a  loaf  and 
a  piece  of  meat  yet  warm,  sufficient  for  a  single 
meal.  He  divided  these,  and  gave  one-half  to 
the  horse,  reserving  the  rest  for  himself.  This 
story  Bede  claims  that  he  heard  from  a  devout 
priest  of  his  own  monastery  named  Ingwald,  who 
reported  that  he  had  himself  heard  it  from 
Cuthberht  after  he  became  Bishop.^ 

In  another  story  of  a  miracle  we  have  a  nice 
trait  of  the  Saint  reported.  He  was  on  one  of  his 
journeys,  accompanied  by  a  boy,  when  his  provisions 
ran  short,  and  his  companion's  dejection  was  cured 
by  Cuthberht  pointing  out  a  sea-eagle  flying  aloft, 
and  remarking  that  by  its  agency  their  want  would 
be  supplied.  As  they  proceeded  along  the  river 
bank  (the  Anon.  Life  calls  it  the  river  Tesgeta)^  they 
noticed  the  eagle  sitting  there,  whereupon  he  said  to 
the  boy  :  '*  Do  you  see  our  handmaid  ?  Run  and 
search  if  the  Lord  has  not  provided  us  something." 
The  boy  soon  brought  back  a  large  fish,  which  the 
bird  had  captured.  "  Why  have  you  not  given  our 
handmaid  her  share  ?  "  he  said.  *'  Cut  it  in  two, 
and  give  her  the  portion  which  she  deserves  for  her 
service  " — which  was  accordingly  done.^ 

When  he  was  at  Melrose,  Cuthberht  used  to 
visit  Abbess  ^bbe  at  Coldingham.  I  have  told  a 
story  about  one  of  these  visits  in  a  later  page.* 

^  Bede,  Vit.  Cuik.,  chap.  v. 

^  Stevenson  suggests  this  is  a  corruption  of  Tevyota,  the  Teviot. 
Bede,  Op.^  Hist.  Minora,  ii.  268. 

*  Vit.  Anon.^  par.  17  ;  Bede,  Vit.yXu.  *  Appendix  I. 


EARLY   MIRACLES  OF  CUTHBERIIT         13 

A  fourth  adventure  of  his,  which  happened  when 
he  was  visiting  the  abbey  at  Tiningham,  will  also  be 
found  later  on.^ 

Bede  reports  another  of  Cuthberht's  miracles, 
which  also  has  a  local  colour,  and  which  he  claims 
to  have  learnt  about  at  first  hand.  A  certain 
nobleman  {comes)  called  Sibba,  who  lived  near  the 
river  "Opide"(?)  (jtixta  fluviuni  Opide),^  begged 
the  Saint  to  visit  his  house,  where  he  had  a  servant 
who  was  at  the  point  of  death,  and  asked  him  to 
cure  him.  He  accordingly  blessed  some  water, 
which  he  bade  them  give  to  him.  As  some  of  this 
was  being  given  to  the  sick  man  for  the  third  time 
he  fell  into  a  deep  and  tranquil  sleep,  in  which  he 
remained  the  whole  night,  and  in  the  morning  was 
restored  to  perfect  health.  The  servant  who  ad- 
ministered the  water  was  called  Baldhelm.  "He 
is  living,"  says  Bede,  "to  this  day,  and  is  now  a 
priest  in  the  church  of  Lindisfarne,  where  he  leads 
a  holy  Hfe,  and  holds  it  sweeter  than  honey  (I'eferre 
melle  dulcius  habei)  to  relate  the  miracles  of  the 
man  of  God."^ 

Of  Cuthberht's  aversion  to,  and  perhaps  dread  of, 
women,  whom  he  seems  to  have  thouo^ht  the  most 
dangerous  of  worldly  pitfalls,  we  have  many  stories. 
Their  rigid  exclusion  from  all  the  churches  where  he 
was  honoured  is  explained  by  Symeon  of  Durham  in 
his  History  of  the  Church  of  Durhain,  chap,  xxii.,  as 

^  Appendix  I. 

^  Stevenson  suggests  a  corruption  of  Tivide,  i.e.  the  Tweed  {pp. 
cit.  279). 

*  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.^  25  ;   Vit.  Anon.^  36. 


1 4     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

due  to  his  horror  at  the  debaucheries  and  ill-conduct 
of  the  nuns  of  Coldingham,  which  I  have  described 
earlier.^  On  the  death  of  the  royal  abbess  ^bbe, 
Cuthberht  insisted  that  the  two  sexes  at  Coldingham 
should  be  rigidly  separated,  and  he  afterwards  caused 
a  special  church  to  be  built  at  Lindisfarne,  known  to 
the  inhabitants  as  the  *'Grene  Cyrice"  or  Green 
Church,  since  it  was  situated  on  a  green  site,  and 
he  ordered  that  women  who  wished  to  hear  Mass  or 
the  reading  of  the  Bible  should  go  thither,  and 
should  never  approach  the  church  used  by  him- 
self and  his  monks.  ''This  custom,"  says  Bede,  ''is 
so  diligently  observed,  even  to  the  present  day,  that 
it  is  unlawful  for  women  to  set  foot  even  within  the 
cemeteries  of  those  churches  where  Cuthberht's  body 
in  its  subsequent  peregrinations  found  a  temporary 
resting-place,  unless  compelled  to  do  so  by  the 
approach  of  an  enemy  or  the  dread  of  fire."  Symeon 
tells  some  stories  to  show  how  severe  the  divine 
penalty  was  believed  to  be  for  any  breach  of  this 
rule.  In  one  case  he  mentions  a  certain  Sungeova, 
daughter  of  Bevon,  called  Gamel  (i.e,  the  old),  who 
was  struck  dead  for  trying  to  cross  the  churchyard 
to  avoid  the  puddles  outside.  Another  woman, 
the  wife  of  a  rich  man  who  afterwards  became  a 
monk,  wished  to  see  the  beautiful  ornaments  in 
the  church,  and  having  ventured  to  intrude  too  far 
lost  her  reason  and  committed  suicide.^ 

The  same  rule  was  observed  at  Durham,  where 

the  Saint  afterwards  lay.     Thus  a  story  is  told  that 

1  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.,  25  ;  Vit.  Anon.^  36.       ^  Hist.  Ec.  Dun.^  ii.  8  and  9. 


ST.  CUTHBERHTS  AVERSION  TO  WOMEN      15 

when  David,  King  of  Scotland,  married  Maud, 
daughter  of  Waltheof,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  and 
the  wedding  party  was  passing  through  Durham  on 
their  way  to  Scotland,  the  bride  with  her  waiting- 
maids  went,  out  of  motives  of  curiosity,  towards 
the  church,  and  had  reached  the  limit  appointed  to 
women  in  the  churchyard  when  they  were  told  that 
no  woman  ever  passed  it  with  impunity.  The 
Queen  good-naturedly  turned  back,  but  Helisend, 
her  waiting-maid,  the  most  skilful  embroiderer  and 
weaver  of  purple  in  the  kingdom,  determined  to 
make  the  experiment,  and  relying  on  her  chastity 
put  on  the  black  cowl  and  hood  of  a  monk,  and, 
without  being  seen,  took  up  her  place  in  the  church. 
She  was  at  once  struck  with  trembling,  and  could 
not  move,  and  St.  Cuthberht  himself,  we  are  told, 
in  the  most  offensive  terms  ordered  Bernard  the 
Sacrist  to  eject  the  false  monk.  This  was  done. 
The  offender  afterwards  became  a  nun  and  made 
her  peace  with  the  Saint. 

"  It  appears,"  says  Mr.  Raine,  "  that  at  that  time 
the  line  of  demarcation  was  in  the  churchyard.  If  it 
be  true  that  the  blue  cross  which  still  reaches  from 
pillar  to  pillar  in  the  pavement  of  the  middle  aisle 
of  the  nave  of  the  Cathedral  at  Durham,  between 
the  north  and  south  doors,  was  at  a  later  period  the 
ne  plus  ultra,  the  Saint  must  have  relaxed  con- 
siderably in  his  misogyny." 

Mr.  Raine  tells  a  similar  story,  showing  that 
Cuthberht  was  no  respecter  of  persons,  and  accord- 
ing to  which,  Queen   Philippa,  wife  of  that  most 


1 6     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

potent  person,  Edward  iii.,  who  in  1333  tried  to 
sleep  with  her  royal  husband  in  the  priory  (now  the 
deanery),  was  compelled  by  the  monks  to  quit  the 
place  in  hot  haste  and  to  seek  shelter  in  the  castle, 
clad  only  in  her  nether  garments/ 

It  is  a  conspicuous  feature  of  Durham  Cathedral 
that  there  is  no  real  Lady  Chapel,  as  in  most  large 
churches.  The  legendary  reason  for  this  is  because 
St.  Cuthberht  objected  to  the  intrusion  of  a  woman 
(even  of  so  great  a  personage  as  our  Lady)  upon  his 
quarters,  and  expressed  himself  in  a  very  emphatic 
way  to  Bishop  Pudsey,  who  proposed  to  build  such 
a  chapel  at  the  east  end,  and  who  thereupon  raised 
the  beautiful,  if  bizarre,  Galilee  at  the  west  end.  The 
story  was  probably  invented  to  explain  the  Galilee. 

More  than  one  miracle  was  attributed  to  this 
portion  of  Cuthberht  s  career.  They  are  mostly 
otiose.  I  will  report  one  which  has  more  local 
colour.  There  was  at  this  time  a  monastery  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river  Tine  in  Lothian,  which 
was  afterwards  known  as  Tiningham,  and  was 
dedicated  to  St.  Baldred.  It  was  then  a  community 
of  men,  and  it  happened  that  some  of  the  brothers 
were  conveying  wood  for  the  use  of  the  monastery 
on  rafts,  and  when  they  drew  near  home  and  wanted 
to  draw  them  to  the  shore  a  sudden  and  tempestuous 
wind  came  from  the  west  and,  catching  the  rafts, 
drove  them  to  the  mouth  of  the  river.  The  monks 
who  were  in  the  monastery  noticing  this,  launched 
some  boats  on  the  river  to  help  their  friends,  but 
^  Raine,  6*/.  Cuthberht^  36  and  2>1^  notes. 


CUTHBERHTS   EARLY  MIRACLES  17 

the  current  and    the    wind    were  too  powerful   for 
them.     They  then  had  recourse  to  prayer,  but  this 
did  not  seem  to  avail  them  for  some  time,  which 
was  disconcerting,  as  a  number  of  spectators  from 
among  the  common  people  had  gathered  together 
on    the    other    side    of   the    river.     As   the  monks 
sadly   watched   the    rafts   drawn   out    to    sea,   until 
they   looked   like   five   little   birds   floating   on   the 
waves,  the  people  began  to  jeer  at  them,  deeming 
that  those  who  despised  the  ways  of  other  mortals, 
and  who  had  introduced  a  new  rule   of  life,   de- 
served to  suffer  such  a  calamity.      For  this  attitude 
Cuthberht  rebuked  them,  saying  it  would  be  more 
seemly  if  they  joined    their  prayers    to   those   of 
the  brethren  ;  but  they  remained  churlish,  saying, 
"  Let  no  one  pray  for  them  !     May  God  have  no 
pity   on   those    who   have   robbed   us   of  our   old 
worship  so  that  no    one   knows    how   to  observe 
it  now !  "     Thereupon  Cuthberht  bent  his  head  to 
the  ground  and  the  wind  abated,  and  the  monks 
were  able   to  turn   round  and  to  brinor  back  the 
rafts  again   to  the  beach,   with  those  who  steered 
them,  and  to  lay  them  alongside   the   monastery. 
We    are   told  the   rustics   were    ashamed    of  their 
conduct.     Bede   claims   to   have    heard   this    story 
from  a  most  approved  monk  of  his  monastery. 

It  would  seem  that  St.  Cuthberht,  like  St.  Chad, 
accepted  the  decision  of  the  Council  of  Whitby  as 
decisive  and  conformed  to  the  Roman  rule,  of  which, 
according   to    Bede,    he    then    became    an    ardent 

champion. 

VOL.  in. — 2 


1 8  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

When  he  had  spent  some  time  at  Melrose  he 
was  removed  by  Abbot  Eata  to  Lindisfarne/  as 
prior,  to  teach  the  rules  of  monastic  perfection  with 
the  authority  of  a  superior.  This  shows  that, 
as  before  at  Ripon  and  Melrose,  the  practice 
of  the  Irish  mission  was  contrary  to  the  rule 
in  Benedictine  houses,  for  Eata  presided  over  both 
monasteries.  On  his  arrival  Cuthberht  immediately 
began  his  reforms,  and  urged  the  monks  who  clung 
to  St.  Aidan's  ideals,  both  by  his  example  and 
teaching,  to  adopt  the  Roman  view,  while  he  also 
worked  assiduously  at  evangelising  the  common 
people  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  became  very 
famous  for  his  alleged  miracles — curing  sickness, 
easing  men's  troubles  and  torments,  and  con- 
founding evil  spirits  when  present,  by  his  touch, 
his  prayers,  his  commands,  or  by  exorcism,  and, 
when  absent,  by  prayer  only. 

His  new  discipline  was  not  welcome  to  some  of 
the  monks,  who  preferred  the  ancient  customs  to 
the  new  Rule,  but  he  won  them  over  by  tactful 
patience,  and  by  daily  practice  brought  them 
gradually  round  to  his  view.  In  the  Chapter  of 
the  brethren  he  frequently  discussed  his  "  Rule," 
and  when  angry  comments  were  made  he  would 
dismiss  the  assembly  with  some  gentle  words ; 
and  would  then  depart,  and  resume  his  appeal 
the    following    day  as    if    nothing    had    happened, 

^  Lindisfarne  is  now  known  as  Holy  Island.  It  received  the  latter 
name,  according  to  Archbishop  Eyre,  in  the  time  of  Bishop  Carilef, 
and  it  first  occurs  in  a  charter  of  1093  {op.  cit.  16). 


CUTHBERHT  AS  PRIOR  OF  LINDISFARNE      19 

and  as  if  he  were  starting  afresh.  He  thus  won 
them  round  by  his  perseverance.  Whatever  op- 
position or  trouble  he  had  to  meet  he  bore  it  all 
with  a  cheerful  countenance.^ 

It  would  seem  that  sometimes  he  would  pass  three 
or  four  consecutive  nights  in  vigil  and  meditation, 
during  which  he  did  not  return  to  his  own  bed  nor 
was  there  any  other  place  out  of  the  dormitory 
of  the  brethren  where  he  could  sleep.  On  these 
occasions  he  either  devoted  himself  continuously  to 
prayer  or  worked  at  some  handicraft  in  the  intervals 
of  psalmody,  or  else  he  went  round  the  island  to 
examine  each  part  of  it.  He  used  to  reprove  the 
brethren  when  they  complained  of  being  roused 
from  their  sleep  at  night  or  at  noonday  {jneridianae 
qtiietis  tempore)  ^ — this  phrase  shows  the  monks  had 
their  siesta  in  Northumbria  as  in  Italy. 

He  was  of  a  very  sensitive  nature,  and  Bede 
says  he  could  not  complete  the  Office  of  the  Mass 
without  a  profuse  flood  of  tears,  and  when  his 
penitents  were  confessing  to  him  he  would  be  the 
first  to  take  compassion  on  them  by  weeping,  and 
thus  won  over  sinners  to  his  way  of  life  by  his 
own  example.  The  gift  of  tears  was  very  much 
more  available  to  the  preacher  in  those  emotional 
days.  Bishop  Stubbs  describes  it  as  curiously  un- 
intelligible at  the  present  day,  but  he  probably  never 
attended  the  revival  services  among  the  Methodists 
and  other  Nonconformist  bodies.  Bede  at  all  events 
seems  to  speak  of  it  as  quite  usual  in  the  pulpit.^ 

1  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.,  chap.  16.         2  /^  3  Comp.  0pp.,  vii.  364. 


20     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Dunstan  used  it  freely  ;  thus  we  are  told  of  him 
''  Sanctus  quoqite  Spiritiis  .  .  .  in  ociclorum  rivulis 
elicuity  ^  "Of  Alcuin,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  said 
that  he  poured  out  his  sermon  with  many  groans, 
but  very  seldom  gave  way  to  tears."  ^ 

Cuthberht's  dress  was  ordinary  and  not  remark- 
able either  for  neatness  or  slovenliness.  It  was 
the  custom  at  Lindisfarne  that  none  should  wear 
varied  or  costly  colours  in  their  garments,  but  only 
use  the  natural  colour  of  the  wool.^ 

After  passing  several  years  in  the  monastery  at 
Lindisfarne,  probably  as  prior,  he  at  length  departed 
with  the  ofood  wishes  of  the  Abbot  Eata  and  the 
brethren,  and  sought  out  what  he  had  long  craved 
for,  namely,  a  life  of  secret  solitude.  It  had  been  his 
practice  when  at  Lindisfarne  to  withdraw  at  times 
into  a  certain  place  outside,  where  he  was  more 
secluded.  The  Irish  monks  used  to  call  such  a  retreat 
"  a  disart."  This  absolute  withdrawal  from  the  duties 
of  his  position  for  purely  personal  reasons,  and  de- 
voting himself  meanwhile  to  the  morbid  dangers  of 
secret  introspection,  was  according  to  even  such  a  man 
of  sense  as  Bede  a  movement  from  one  form  of  grace 
to  another  still  greater  (virtute  in  virtutem).  When 
at  the  end  he  virtually  deserted  his  see  and  retired 
to  his  cell,  his  anonymous  biographer  speaks  of 
it  as  '*  a  forsakino^  of  secular  honour." 

Raine  says  that  on  the  southern  slope  of  a  long 
ridge  of  hills  near  the  village  of  Howburn  there  is 

1  Stubbs'  Dunstan^  p.  50.  ^  Mon.  Alc.^  p.  20. 

'  Vit.  Anon. J  chap.  16. 


+  ^.ly  or  nut[€  isx\i?d 


SCAit    rOuR   CHAINS  TO  ^N  INCH 


KE    »itw     Of    fARNt      .Jl-AMD    'ROM    rMt    STA 


[I'o/.  II  I.,  facing  p.  20. 


ST.  CUTHBERHT  BECOMES  AN  ANCHORITE      2  i 

a  cave  which  has  been  invariably  called  Cuthberht's 
Cave,  or,  in  the  words  of  the  villagers,  Cuddy's  Cave, 
which  tradition  says  was  inhabited  by  him.^ 

The  Saint  now  felt  that  this  temporary  and 
periodical  retirement  was  not  enough,  nor  could  he 
eet  the  absolute  seclusion  he  needed  there.  The 
place  he  chose  for  his  new  retreat  was  one  of  a 
group  of  small  islets  on  the  Northumbrian  coast 
known  as  the  Fame  Islands,  situated,  says  Bede, 
about  a  thousand  paces  to  the  east  of  Lindisfarne. 
His  choice  fell  on  the  one  nearest  to  the  mainland. 
Previous  to  his  s^oino"  thither  no  man  had  been  able 
to  live  there  with  any  comfort.  According  to  Bede, 
this  was  because  the  island  was  infested  by  demons. 
When  he  settled  there,  our  historian  claims  that, 
armed  as  he  was  with  heavenly  weapons,  the  wicked 
enemy  himself  and  all  his  host  were  dispersed. 

Mr.  Raine  thus  describes  the  place  :  "  Fame 
Island  consists  of  a  few  acres  of  ground  partially 
covered  with  grass  and  hemmed  around  with  an 
abrupt  border  of  basaltic  rocks,  which  on  the  side 
nearest  the  mainland  rises  to  the  height  of  80  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea.  There  is,  however,  a 
gentle  slope  on  the  side  of  the  ocean,  and  on  this 
side  Cuthberht  erected  his  habitation.  The  nearest 
point  to  Fame  Island  upon  the  coast  is  Bamborough 
Castle,  from  which  it  is  distant  about  two  miles 
and  a  quarter.  The  adjacent  islands,  all  of  which 
from  an  early  period  have  been  known  by  their 
respective    names,    are    at    low    water    sixteen    in 

^  Op.  cit.  20  and  21. 


2  2  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 


number,  and  many  of  them  are  totally  devoid  of 
vegetation."^ 

Among  the  wild-fowl  there  the  most  interesting 
are  the  eider  ducks,  so  connected  with  the  legendary 
history  of  the  hermits  on  the  island.  In  the  time 
of  Reginald  of  Durham  they  were  called  St. 
Cuthberht's  ducks,  and  he  gives  a  picturesque 
description  of  them,  showing  he  knew  them  well. 

In  the  Durham  Accounts  for  1 380-1,  we  read  : 
"  Paid  to  a  painter  from  Newcastle  for  painting  one 
of  the  birds  of  St.  Cuthberht,  as  a  specimen  for  the 
altar  screen  {i.e.  the  reredos),  i2d."^ 

When  the  Saint  first  arrived  in  the  island  they 
were  in  a  natural  state  of  wildness.  But  he  so 
tamed  them  that,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  story,  he 
prescribed  places  for  them  to  build  in,  and  the 
times  for  their  coming  and  departure,  and  when- 
ever a  storm  or  other  trouble  was  threatening  they 
fled  to  him  for  refuge,  while  he  occasionally 
performed  miracles  on  their  behalf.^  In  the  Anon. 
Life  it  is  said  the  ducks  used  even  to  allow  him  to 
stroke  them  and  to  nestle  in  his  bosom.  The 
gentleness  of  the  birds  and  the  marked  softness  of 
their  down  were  deemed  the  results  of  his  special 

^  The  Fame  I  slands,  till  the  Dissolution,  regularly  supplied  the 
great  church  at  Durham  upon  days  of  festivity  with  porpoises,  seals, 
and  wild-fowl.  Thus  we  read,  in  the  accounts  for  1538  :  "For  one 
sea-swine  {pore,  inarin.)  bought  of  the  Master  of  Fayrne  on  the 
1st  September,  los.  One  sea-calf  {vitul.  marm.)  bought  of  the 
Master  of  Fayrne,  against  the  Festival  of  St.  Nicholas,  5s."  (Raine, 
op.  cit.  22,  note). 

Other  accounts  speak  of  the  sea-fowl  "procured  out  of  the  Ffarne 
yland  against  the  Assize  Week  in  1628"  (Raine's  Cuthberht.,  22,  note). 

2  Raine,  op.  eit.  119.  -  »  Reg.  Dun..,  27. 


ST.   CUTHBERHrS  HERMITAGE  23 

influence.  "It  would  appear,"  says  Raine,  "that 
the  ducks  have  some  recollection  of  Cuthberht  and 
his  protecting  hand,  for  in  the  summer  of  181 8  I 
literally  saw  one  of  them  hatching  her  eggs  in  a 
stone  coffin  overhunor  with  nettles  amonor  the  ruins 

o  o 

of  his  mansion."  ^ 

It  was  not  only  the  birds  which  responded  to 
St.  Cuthberht's  gentle  ways.  One  of  the  miracles 
connected  with  him  reports  how  once  when,  as  was 
his  wont,  he  was  bathincr  in  the  sea  and  sino^ine  his 
vigils,  and  had  been  up  to  the  neck  in  water,  two 
otters  [lutrae  ;  seals  are  probably  meant)  came  from 
the  water,  and  while  the  Saint  kneeled  on  a  stone, 
licked  his  frozen  limbs  and  wiped  them  with  their  hair 
until  life  and  warmth  returned  to  his  numbed  feet.^ 

The  fishermen  on  the  coast  of  Northumber- 
land still  hold  to  the  legend  that  certain  little  shells 
of  the  genus  Eutrochus  which  are  found  there, 
and  which  are  known  as  St.  Cuthberht's  beads, 
are  made  by  him,  and  that  he  can  sometimes  be 
seen  at  night  seated  on  a  rock  and  using  one 
stone  as  a  hammer  and  another  as  an  anvil  for 
his  work.    Scott  refers  to  the  story  in  "  Marmion"  : — 

"  But  fain  Saint  Hilda's  nuns  would  learn 
If  on  a  rock  by  Lindisfarne 
Saint  Cuthberht  sits  and  toils  to  frame 
The  sea-born  beads  that  bear  his  name. 
Such  tales  had  Whitby's  fishers  told, 
And  said  they  might  his  shape  behold 
And  hear  his  anvil  sound."  ^ 


^  Raine's  Cuthberht^  22  and  23. 

'  Montalembert,  iv.  386.  *  Op.  cit.  canto  ii. 


24     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Bede  eives  us  a  few  lines  in  which  he  describes 
the   cell  (which   he   elsewhere    calls  tugtcriuncitlus) 
in    which    Cuthberht    spent  his    hermit   days,    and 
from  the  site  of  which  he  was  said  to  have  driven 
demons  who  sheltered  in  the  other  Fame  islands. 
He    tells    us    its   containing   boundary,    for  it   was 
apparently  a  rath,  was  nearly  circular,  about  four  or 
five  perches  {qtiinqtte  perticae)  from  wall   to  wall. 
Outside,  the  wall  was  higher  than  the  stature  of  a 
man,  while  inside,  by  cutting  down  into  the  living 
rock,  it  was    made   higher  still,   in  order,  says  his 
didactic  biographer,  '*that  he  might  curb  the  evil 
passion    [lasciviam)    of    his    eyes    as   well    as   of 
his  thoughts,  and  raise  up    his  mind  to   heavenly 
desires,  for  he   could  see   nothing  from   his  house 
[de  sua  77tansione)  save  heaven.     The  walls  were 
built    of   neither  hewn    stone  (secto  lapide)  nor  of 
brick  and    mortar  {Latere  et  caemento),   but  of  un- 
wroueht  stone  and  of  turves,  the  former  of  which  he 
due  out  of  the  foundations.     Some  of  these  stones 

o 

were  so  large  that  it  seemed  hardly  possible  for  four 
men  to  lift  them.  Nevertheless  it  was  discovered 
that  he  had  removed  them  from  another  place. 
Bede  attributes  this  to  supernatural  aid.  The  cell 
was  divided  into  two  rooms  by  a  partition  :  one  was 
an  oratory  or  chapel  and  the  other  a  dwelling- 
place.  The  roof  was  formed  of  rough  beams  and 
thatched  with  bent-grass  {faeno).  From  some 
other  source,  Montalembert  reports  that  he  sus- 
pended the  hide  of  an  ox  before  the  entrance  of  his 
grotto,  which  he  turned  according  to  the  direction 


ST.   CUTHBERHTS  HERMIT  LIFE  25 

of  the  wind,  and  which  afforded  him  a  poor  defence 
against  the  intemperance  of  that  wild  climate/ 

At  the  landing-place  on  the  island  there  was 
a  large  house  (inansid)  with  outhouses,  where  the 
monks  who  came  to  see  him  were  received  and 
entertained,  and  near  it  was  a  spring  of  water.^ 

His  dwelling,  from  being  planted  on  a  hard 
rock,  was  in  want  of  water.  Thereupon,  having 
summoned  some  of  the  brethren,  he  asked  them 
to  join  with  him  in  digging  in  the  middle  of  the 
hut,  as  he  was  assured  that  He  who  had  turned 
the  hard  rock  into  a  spring  of  water  would  provide 
them  with  what  they  wanted.  Apropos  of  this, 
Bede  quotes  the  eighth  verse  of  the  36th  Psalm  : 
"  He  will  give  us  to  drink  of  the  torrent  of 
His  pleasure."  They  accordingly  dug,  and  on  the 
morrow  they  found  the  pit  was  full  of  water. 
They  deemed  it  strange  that  while  the  hole  was 
filled  the  water  did  not  run  over  nor  wet  the 
pavement,  nor  was  it  ever  exhausted. 

After  his  death  the  Saint's  cell  was  occupied 
successively  by  a  series  of  other  anchorites,  until 
in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  it  became 
a  cell  of  Benedictine  monks. 

St.  Cuthberht's  buildings  still  largely  remained 
intact  in  the  twelfth  century,  when  they  were  de- 
scribed in  the  life  of  the  anchorite  Bartholomew. 
It  mentions  the  small  low  cottage  which  the  Saint 
had  built  of  rouo^h  stone  and  bent-o^rass,  situated 
on  the  north  side  of  the  island  at  the  only  place 

^  Op.  cit.  iv.  394.  2  Bede,  Vit.^  chap.  18. 


2  6     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  E  ARL Y  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

accessible  by  a  boat.  The  well  was  also  there, 
with  the  rough  narrow  pathway  leading  to  the 
oratory,  which  was  purposely  planted  in  a  secluded 
place  among  the  rocks/ 

At  first  when  Cuthberht  settled  at  Fame  he 
used  to  come  out  of  his  cell  when  the  brethren 
came  to  visit  him  in  order  to  minister  to  them. 
On  these  occasions  he  would  wash  their  feet 
with  warm  water,  while  they  in  turn  offered 
to  take  off  his  sandals  and  let  them  wash  his. 
So  much  did  he  himself  neglect  his  bodily  needs 
in  his  anxious  care  for  his  soul,  that  when  once 
he  had  put  on  his  long  hose  or  buskins  he  did  not 
take  them  off  for  a  twelvemonth.  They  were  made 
of  hide,  and  Mabillon  says  such  hose  were  still  in  his 
day  called  des  tricouses  in  France.  After  Easter 
Eve  he  never  took  them  off  again  for  a  year  until 
the  return  of  the  Pasch  (the  paschal  feast  was  so 
called  in  England),  when  he  was  unshod  for  the 
ceremony  of  "washing  the  feet,"  which  was 
generally  practised  on  Maundy  Thursday. 

On  account  of  his  many  genuflections,  extensive 
callosities  grew  at  the  junction  of  his  feet  and  legs. 

He  was  still  not  satisfied  with  the  austerities 
he  practised.  The  passion  for  such  rigid  penances 
grew  more  and  more  dominant.  ''  As  his  zeal 
for  perfection  grew,"  says  Bede,  '*  he  shut  himself 
up  in  his  cell,  entirely  away  from  the  sight  of 
men,  and  led  a  solitary  life  of  fasting,  prayer,  and 
watchings,  rarely  holding  converse  from  within  with 

^  See  Syineon  of  Durham^  i.  p.  313. 


ST.   CUTHBERHT'S  HERMIT  LIFE  27 

those  that  came  to  him,  and  this  only  by  the 
window.  At  first  he  was  wont  to  open  the  casemate 
so  that  he  could  be  seen  by  the  monks,  and  when 
he  chanced  to  speak  to  them  they  gready  rejoiced  ; 
but  presently  he  shut  this  up  also,  and  never  un- 
closed it  except  for  giving  the  blessing  or  for  some 
other  avowed  necessity."^  This  being  his  practice 
we  may  turn  to  his  theory.  As  Bede  reports  in 
another  part  of  the  same  work,  he  used  to  protest 
to  the  monks  who  sometimes  visited  him  that  if 
it  were  possible  he  would  like  to  secrete  himself 
in  ever  so  narrow  a  cell,  where  the  cliffs  of  the 
swelling  ocean  should  gird  him  round  on  every 
side  and  shut  him  out  from  the  sight  as  well 
as  from  the  knowledge  of  men  ;  not  even  then 
would  he  think  himself  free  from  the  snares  of  this 
deceitful  world,  but  there  also,  he  would  dread  that 
covetousness  might  tempt  him  to  leave  his  retreat 
or  suggest  some  other  cause  to  lure  him  away.^ 

In  reeard  to  his  mode  of  living  we  read  that  at 
first  he  used  to  accept  a  little  bread  from  his  monks 
for  food,  while  he  drank  from  the  spring  in  his 
cell  ;  but  afterwards  he  thought  it  better  to  live  by 
the  toil  of  his  own  hands.  He  therefore  asked 
them  to  bring  him  some  implements  of  husbandry 
and  some  seed  corn  (perhaps  oats),  but  when  the 
midsummer  came  he  found  that  no  corn  had  grown 
up.  Thinking  it  might  be  that  the  ground  was 
too  sterile,  or  that  his  wish  was  opposed  by  the 
Almighty,  he  asked  for  barley  instead  of  corn,  and 

1  Bede,  Vti.  Cuth.,  chap.  18.  2  q^^  cit.  chap.  8. 


2  8      GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

determined  that  if  this  did  not  grow  either,  it  would 
be  better  for  him  to  return  to  the  monastery  rather 
than  to  Hve  by  the  work  of  other  people's  hands.^ 
They  then  brought  him  some  barley  long  after  the 
season  for  planting  that  grain,  and  there  was  little 
hope  of  its  growing  ;  but  it  promptly  sprang  up, 
When  it  grew  the  birds  came  in  flocks  to  eat 
it.  Bede  naively  goes  on  to  say  (as  if  he  fully 
believed  the  story)  that  Cuthberht  reproved  the 
birds  for  having  taken  barley  which  they  had  not 
sown,  and  bade  them  depart  unless  they  had  ob- 
tained God's  consent.  The  birds  at  once  flew  away 
and  did  not  attack  the  harvest  again.  Bede  compares 
this  with  St.  Anthony's  feat  of  restraining  the  wild 
asses  from  injuring  the  little  garden  he  had  planted. 
He  tells  another  story  of  two  crows  which  had 
settled  on  the  island  and  which  began  to  pull  the 
thatch  out  of  the  roof  of  his  cell  to  build  their 
nests  with.  On  his  reproving  them  without  effect, 
he  bade  them  in  Christ's  name  depart,  which 
they  did.  Three  days  later  one  of  them  returned, 
approached  Cuthberht,  spread  out  its  wings,  bowed 
its  head,  and  uttered  humble  notes  as  if  soliciting 
forgiveness.  Thereupon  the  Saint,  who  understood 
their  language,  gave  them  leave  to  return  to  the 
island.  The  crow  then  went  to  fetch  its  com- 
panion, and  they  came  back  together,  bringing  him 
half  a  flitch  of  bacon.  The  Saint  used  to  give  some 
of  the  fat  from  this  flitch,  which  was  forbidden  food 
to  him,  to  the  brethren  to  grease  their  sandals  with. 

1  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.,  19. 


ST.  CUTHBERHrS  HERMIT  LII  E  29 

The  birds  presently  built  their  nests  on  the  island, 
but  never  again  did  they  do  any  harm  to  any  one.^ 

In  these  and  similar  stories  we  see  the  English 
counterpart  of  St.  Francis,  whose  gentle  goodness  was 
effective  in  taming  the  wild  ways  of  men  and  animals, 
and  to  whom  the  swallows  of  Alviano,  the  water- 
bird  of  Rieti,  the  pheasant  of  Sienna,  the  wolf  of 
Gubbio,  and  the  falcon  of  Laverna  paid  homage.^ 

It  was  not  only  living  things  which  are  said  to 
have  ministered  to  his  needs.  He  had  selected  a 
spot  by  the  seaside  where  the  waves  had  hollowed 
out  a  deep  and  narrow  cleft  about  12  feet  wide 
(this  is  still  distinctly  visible  on  the  island),  across 
which   a   bridge   had   to    be   laid.       He   therefore 

o 

asked  his  brother  monks,  next  time  they  went  to 
see  him,  to  take  a  log  of  wood  12  feet  long. 
They  promised  to  do  so,  but  entirely  forgot  it, 
and  expressed  their  regret  for  having  overlooked 
his  order ;  but  he  comforted  them  and  bade  them 
stay  in  the  island  till  the  next  day,  when  it  was 
noticed  that  the  tide  had  in  the  night  drifted  in 
a  log  of  wood  of  the  proper  size  and  laid  it  on 
shore  just  where  it  was  needed.^ 

Attracted    by    his     fame,    many    people    now 

1  Bede,  Vit.  CiiiJt.,  20. 

^  Archbishop  Eyre  enumerates  other  saints  who  tamed  wild 
animals,  e.g,  a  wild  boar  which  licked  the  wounds  of  St.  Andronicus  ; 
a  lioness  crouched  at  the  feet  of  St.  Tarachus  ;  a  raven  defended  the 
unburied  body  of  St.  Vincent ;  St.  Martin  commanded  the  serpents 
and  they  obeyed  him  ;  St.  Anthony  of  Padua  summoned  the  fishes 
to  come  to  his  preaching  when  the  heretics  despised  it  (Eyre,  Hist, 
of  St.  Cicthberht^  21). 

^  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.^  21. 


30     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

repaired  to.  the  island,  not  only  from  Lindisfarne 
but  from  the  remoter  parts  of  Britain,  to  confess 
their  sins  or  to  report  to  him  the  various  tempta- 
tions which  the  devils  had  put  before  them,  and  he 
used  duly  to  strengthen  and  console  them  by  tales 
of  the  impotence  of  the  evil  ones.  He  confessed 
how  they  had  often  thrust  him  headlong  from  the 
lofty  rocks  or  thrown  stones  at  him,  as  if  to  slay  him. 
They  had  also  raised  up  fantastic  temptations  to 
tempt  him  to  flee  from  the  place,  but  had  neverthe- 
less never  been  able  to  injure  his  body  or  to  put  fear 
into  his  mind.  Plummer  urges  that  all  this  shows 
that  his  mind  had,  in  fact,  become  unhinged  by  his 
austerities,  and  he  compares  him  with  some  of  the 
wild  Covenanters  in  Old  Mortality,  who  also  fancied 
they  had  visible  conflicts  with  the  powers  of  evil.^ 

He  used  to  remind  the  brethren  that  the  exalta- 
tion of  his  conversation  was  largely  due  to  the  fact 
that,  as  a  hermit,  he  habitually  despised  the  cares  of 
the  world  and  dwelt  secretly  with  himself;  **yet," 
he  added,  ''the  life  of  monks  is  more  wonderful, 
since  they  follow  in  everything  another's  commands 
and  arrange  their  vigils,  prayers,  fastings,  and 
manual  labour  by  the  orders  of  their  abbot."  He 
had  known,  he  said,  many  of  them  who  had 
excelled  him  in  purity  of  mind  and  in  prophetic 
grace.  As  an  example  he  quoted  his  own  master, 
Boisil,  already  named,  who  had  foretold  all  that 
would  happen  to  himself  Only  one  of  his  pro- 
phecies, he  said,  remained  to  be  fulfilled,  which  he 

^  Op.  cit.  Intr.,  xxx. 


BISHOP  TRUMBERHrS  MONUMENT         31 

sincerely  hoped  would  never  come  about.^     In  diis 
Boisil  had  foretold  that  he  was  to  become  a  Bishop. 

Thus  did  Cuthberht  pass  his  days  until  the  year 
684,  when  for  some  unknown  reason  Bishop 
Trumberht  was  deposed  from  his  see.  In  the  life  of 
Eata  it  is  said  it  was/r^  culpa  cujusdam  i7iobedientiae. 
Perhaps  he  still  clung  to  St.  Aidan's  ways  too  much  ! 
Thereupon,  at  a  synod  held  in  that  year  at  Twyford, 
on  the  Aln,  Cuthberht  was  chosen  to  fill  the  see 
of  Hexham.  Both  King  Ecgfrid  of  Northumbria 
and  Archbishop  Theodore  were  present.  The  post 
was  offered  to  the  recluse  in  vain  until  the  King  and 
Bishop  Trumwine  went  in  person  to  his  island,  and 
after  earnest  entreaties  brought  him  back  to  fill  a 
place  for  which,  by  his  theories  and  ideals,  he  was 
singularly  ill  fitted.  He  was  consecrated  at  York 
as  Bishop  of  Hexham  on  the  26th  of  March  685, 
by  Archbishop  Theodore.  The  vacant  see  was  a 
specially  unsuitable  sphere  for  such  an  inveterate 
hermit  as  Cuthberht,  and  his  old  master  Eata  con- 
sented to  exchange  his  own  diocese  of  Lindisfarne, 
which  he  knew  and  where  he  was  well  known,  and 
which  was  much  better  suited  for  him,  for  that  of 
Hexham. 

There  is  a  considerable  probability  that  the 
monument  of  the  deposed  Bishop  Trumberht  still 
survives.  It  has  been  described  by  Bishop  Browne. 
The  stone  was  discovered  at  Yarm  a  few  years  ago, 
and  was  then  used  as  a  weight  for  a  mangle.  It  is 
now  preserved  at  Durham.      It  bears  an  inscription 

^  Bede,  Vit.  Cuth.,  chap.  22. 


3  2     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

in  several  lines,  six  of  which  are  clear  enough,  and 
are  written  in  English  minuscules.  The  first  line  is 
entirely  obliterated.  The  Bishop  suggests  that  very 
probably  it  contained  either  the  word  *'  Orate  "  or 
perhaps,  more  probably,  the  English  equivalent 
''  Gebid  fore." 

Two  letters  can  still  be  traced  in  the  second 
line  of  the  inscription,  which,  says  Bishop  Browne, 
are  almost  certainly  /  and  r.  These  he  expands 
into  **pro  Tru." 

The  rest  of  the  inscription  reads  quite  plainly — 

"  mberehc 
t  ^  sac  ^ 
alia  ^  sign 
um  Aefter 
his  breodera 
ysetae  " 

The  whole  would  then  read  in  English  : —  ' 

**  Pray  for  Trumbercht  the  'sacerdos.'  Alia 
(erected)  this  monument  for  his  brother." 

Sacerdos  at  this  time  in  nearly  all  cases  meant 
Bishop,  and,  as  Dr.  Browne  says,  no  bishop  at 
this  time,  except  our  Trumberht,  bears  a  name  con- 
sistent with  these  letters,  while  the  language  of  the 
inscription  is  also  of  the  date.^ 

Cuthberht  was  only  a  bishop  for  about  two  years, 
and  we  have  hardly  any  information  about  his 
evangelical  work,  except  at  Carlisle,  where  he  prob- 
ably felt  he  had  a  congenial  sphere  since  the  country 
was    only    recently   occupied    and   settled    by   the 

^  Browne,  Theodore  a?td  Wilfrid,  i6i  and  162. 


Shaft  of  thf  Cross  of  Bishop  TkUMiiKRHT 


[l^oL  HI.,  facing  p.  32. 


CUTHBERHT'S  INFLUENCE  IN  SCOTLAND      33 


Angllans,  while  the  King  had  given  him  a  rich 
estate  there.  Bede  says  he  went  thither  especially 
to  ordain  some  of  his  priests  and  to  veil  the  Queen. 
He  was  there,  in  fact,  when  Ecgfrid  went  on  his  un- 
fortunate expedition  against  the  Picts,  and  there  he 
gave  the  veil  to  his  widowed  Queen  in  a  monas- 
tery founded  by  her  sister.^  His  sphere  of  labours, 
however,  extended  beyond  the  diocese  of  Carlisle, 
and  invites  us  to  make  a  journey  with  him. 

It  would  seem  that  his  missionary  labours  and 
his  direct  influence  extended  over  the  whole  northern 
part  of  Ecgfrid's  dominions.  It  certainly  included 
the  Lothians,  and  almost  certainly  extended  to  the 
Firth  of  Forth,  which  was  then  the  northern  frontier 
of  Northumbria  on  the  eastern  side  of  England,  and 
divided  it  from  the  land  of  the  Picts. 

Ecgfrid's  direct  dominations  also  stretched  farther 
north  on  the  western  side  of  the  English 
Apennines  than  some  have  thought.  On  this  point 
I  differ  from  some  other  writers.  In  his  Life  of  St. 
Wilfrid,  ^ddi  says:  '' sicut  .  .  .  E  eg  frit  ho  .  .  . 
regnum  ad  Aquilonem  .  .  .  per  tritmzpkos  augebattcr^ 
ita  beatae  memoriae  Wilfritho  episcopo  .  .  .  ad 
Aquilonem  super  Brittones  et  Scottos  Pictosque, 
regnum  ecclesiarum  multiplicabattir.'"^  This  is 
an  exaggeration,  but  it  seems  to  me  clearly  to 
imply  that  Wilfrid  was  the  ecclesiastical  head  of  all 
those  portions  of  Ecgfrid's  kingdom  which  were 
directly  subject  to  the  King,  and  were  not  merely 
vassal    states.      There    can    be    no    doubt    that    in 

^  Vide  ante,  ii.  107  and  108.        ^  Raine,  Historians  of  York,  i.  21. 
VOL.  III. — 3 


3  4  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

addition  to  the  district  of  Carlisle,  where  Cuthberht 
spent  a  considerable  time  shortly  before  he  died/ 
it  included,  therefore,  the  northern  as  well  as  the 
southern  maritime  border  of  the  Solway  Firth.  The 
British  kingdom  of  Strathclyde,  with  its  capital  at 
Dumbarton,  was  then  limited  to  the  strath  or  water- 
shed of  the  Clyde  and  did  not  include  the  country 
south  and  south-west  of  it,  which  was  then  largely 
settled  by  Anglians. 

It  is  only  thus  that  we  can  understand  how  the 
diocese  of  Whitherne,  the  see  of  which  had  been  in 
abeyance  for  a  long  time,  was  revived  at  this  time, 
and  why  it  had  a  succession  of  bishops  all  bearing 
Anglian  names,  and  not  one  of  whom  probably 
could  speak  the  British  or  the  Irish  tongue.  These 
were  Pecthelm,  Frithuwald,  and  Pectwine. 

It  will  be  useful  to  recall  one  or  two  stories  con- 
nected with  Cuthberht's  doings  in  the  land  beyond 
the  Solway  Firth.  Bede  tells  us  how  on  one  occa- 
sion he,  ''  in  pursuit  of  some  matters  which  required 
his  presence,"  embarked  on  a  vessel  for  the  land 
of  the  Picts  who  were  called  "Niduarii."^  The 
Anonymous  Life  says  they  came  to  a  place  called 

^  Vide  ante^  ii.  108-109. 

2  It  is  pretty  plain  that  this  voyage  to  the  land  of  the  Niduarii 
must  have  been  made  along  the  Solway  Firth,  which  was  then 
much  frequented  by  travellers  going  to  and  fro  from  Ireland. 
The  Niduarii  were  in  fact  so  named  from  the  River  Nith  (Nid), 
which  flows  into  the  Solway  Firth.  In  the  fabulous  Irish  life  of  the 
Saint  he  is  said  to  have  landed  in  Galloway  (Galweia),  whither  he 
sailed  in  a  stone-boat  from  Ireland  on  his  first  visit  to  England,  and 
that  he  landed  in  the  region  called  Rennii,  in  the  port  of  Rintsnoc 
{ib.  chap.  xix.).  This  Skene  identifies  with  Portpatrick  in  the  Rinns 
of  Galloway  {Celtic  Scotland^  ii.  203). 


ST.  CUTHBERHT  IN  SOUTHERN  SCOTLAND      35 

Mudpieraleges  (Stevenson  makes  this  a  corruption 
of  Niduarii).  He  was  accompanied  by  two  of 
the  brethren,  one  of  whom  afterwards  became 
a  priest  and  was  responsible  for  the  miraculous 
story  which  Bede  tells.  The  travellers  had 
arrived  at  their  bourne  on  the  day  after  Christmas 
Day,  the  weather  was  very  fine,  and  the  aspect 
of  the  waves  was  smiling.  They  had  not,  there- 
fore, taken  provisions  for  a  stay,  but  immediately 
on  their  arrival  a  tempest  came  on  and  prevented 
them  from  starting  on  their  return  for  several  days, 
during  which  they  suffered  much  from  cold  and 
hunger,  and  the  ground  was  covered  with  snow. 
Meanwhile  Cuthberht  spent  most  of  his  time  in 
prayer,  and  presently  he  took  his  companions  to  the 
foot  of  a  cliff  close  by,  where  they  found  three  pieces 
of  a  dolphin  {tria  frusta  delphininae  carnis ;  probably 
a  porpoise  is  meant),  as  if  cut  by  human  aid  and  ready 
for  cooking.  As  he  had  foretold,  the  tempest,  after 
lasting  for  three  days,  abated,  and  on  the  fourth  day 
they  returned  happily  to  their  own  country.^ 

A  saga  reports  how  he  came  to  leave  the  Picts' 
land.  It  is  contained  in  the  Irish  life  of  the  Saint, 
which,  although  an  apocryphal  story,  was  widely 
credited  in  the  Middle  Ages.  It  says  that  while 
he  was  living  as  a  hermit  there  the  daughter  of  a 
Pictish  king  accused  him  of  having  violated  her, 
whereupon  at  the  prayer  of  the  Saint  the  earth 
opened  and  swallowed  her  up.  This  was  at  a  place 
called  Corven,  ''whence  it  was,"  says  the  legend, 

^  Vit.  Anon.^  15  ;  Bede,  F//.,  xi. 


3  6     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

"that  no  woman  was  permitted  to  enter  a  church 
dedicated  to  his  honour."  The  story  is  doubtless  a 
fable,  but  the  prohibition  it  was  probably  invented 
to  explain  is  certain. 

It  is  not  only  Cuthberht's  tie  with  the  land  of  the 
Niduarii  that  attests  his  influence  beyond  the  Sol  way 
Firth,  but  also  the  fact  of  several  churches  in 
Scotland  having  been  dedicated  to  hlm.^  Of  these, 
the  name  and  associations  of  Kirkcudbright  in 
Dumfriesshire  are  the  most  interesting.  Of  the 
etymology  of  this  place-name  there  can  be  no  doubt 
whatever.  Reginald  of  Durham  calls  it  *'  Cuth- 
brlctiskhlrche,"  and  tells  a  story  about  it  in  which 
he  says  :  * '  Villula  ipsa  Cuthbrictis  khirche  dicitur ; 
quae  a  Beati  Cuthberhti  memoria,  quae  in  eadeTn 
habetur  ecclesia,  nomen  sortiri  videturT  He  says  it 
was  situated  in  the  land  of  the  PIcts,  and  adds  of  it 
prettily,  ''  de  fluvio  ejus  suburbania  decur^'ente  blanda 
dulcedine  perornata  est'"^  In  1 164  he  says  ^Ired 
of  Rievaulx  happened  to  be  there  on  St.  Cuthberht's 
feast-day,  when  he  saw  a  man  undergoing  punish- 
ment who  was  wearing  round  his  naked  body  a  ring 
of  iron  made  out  of  the  sword  or  other  weapon  with 

^  I  will  take  the  list  from  Bishop  Forbes'  Kalendars  of  British 
Saints :  Ballantrae,  Hailes,  Glencairn,  Denesmor,  Kirkcudbright, Glen- 
holm,  Ednam,  Drummelzier,  Maxton,  Edinburgh,  Wick  (a  chapel), 
Prestwick,  Hauster,  Eccles,  Drysdale,  Girvan,  Ewes  in  Eskdale, 
Straiton  in  Carrick,  Mauchline,  Maybole,  Invertig,  and  Weem  near 
Dunkeld.  Fairs  in  his  honour  are  still  held  on  his  day  at  Langton 
in  Merse,  Poole,  Grange,  and  Linlithgow  {op.  cit.  318-19).  In  the 
Originates  Parochiales  it  is  said  that  affectionate  memorials  are  still 
found  at  Melrose,  Channel  Kirk,  and  Maxton  {pp.  cit.  i.  Preface, 
xxiii). 

2  Op.  cit.  chap.  85. 


ST.  CUTHBERHT  IN  SOUTHERN  SCOTLAND      37 

which  he  had  committed  a  crime.  This  had  created 
an  ulcerous  sore.  The  man  having  heard  of  the 
virtues  of  the  Saint,  had  gone  to  pray  for  rehef,  when 
we  are  gravely  told  the  iron  ring  burst  asunder.^ 

On  the  same  day  our  author  tells  us  that  a  most 
furious  bull  was  offered  as  an  oblation  in  the  church. 
He  adds  that  the  clerks  who  dwelt  in  the  latter — by 
whom  he  doubtless  means  scholars  (who,  he  says,  in 
the  Pictish  language  were  called  "  Scollofthes  ") — 
began  to  bait  the  bull  in  the  churchyard  {i7t  cytneterio 
Beati  Cuthberhti).  The  church,  he  says,  was  made 
of  stone  [petrosa  et  de  lapidibiis  compacta  ecclesiola)} 
The  bull  broke  loose  and  killed  the  youth  [predictum 
scholasticum)  who  had  incited  the  rest  to  torment  it.^ 

This  story,  with  its  reference  to  the  Pictish 
tongue  still  surviving  in  Dumfriesshire,  shows  that 
that  county  also  belonged  to  the  country  of  the 
Niduarii,  and  that  the  diocese  of  Whitherne  com- 
prised the  whole  district  north  of  the  Solway,  doubt- 
less also  including  part  of  Ayrshire.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  till  the  fourteenth  century  Whitherne 
continued  to  be  under  the  archdiocese  of  York,  and 
was  treated  as  a  Northumbrian  diocese  by  Bede. 

St.  Cuthberht  had  other  ties  with  the  south  of 
Scotland,  where  in  fact  he  was  born. 

We  may  further  remember  as  an  additional 
argument  in  favour  of  the  Northumbrian  domination, 
both  lay  and  ecclesiastical,  in  this  district,  the  presence 
of  the  splendid  seventh-century  cross  at  Rushworth. 
in  Dumfriesshire.^ 

1  Op.  cit.  chap.  85.  '^  lb.  ^  lb.  *  See  Appendix  IV. 


3  8     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

This  will  be  a  convenient  place  to  intervene  with 
a  notice  of  what  we  know  of  the  earlier  history  of 
the  restoration  of  the  see  at  Whitherne. 

When  the  bishopric  was  renewed,  Plummer 
argues  that  its  seat  was  planted  in  the  monastery  at 
Whitherne,  which  was  hallowed  by  the  memory  of 
St.  Ninian.  He  adds  that  in  the  lives  of  Irish  saints 
it  was  called  Rosnat  and  Magnum  Monasterium, 
and  was  represented  as  a  great  centre  of  monastic 
discipline  and  learning  where  several  of  them  had 
their  training.^ 

The  date  of  the  revival  is  not  exactly  known, 
but  it  may  be  approximately  fixed.  Bede,  writing 
in  731,  says  that  Pehthelm  was  then  bishop  in 
the  church  called  Candida  Casa  (i.e.  the  White 
House),  which  from  the  increasing  number  of 
believers  had  lately  become  an  additional  episcopal 
see  and  had  him  for  its  first  prelate.^  This  agrees 
with  Richard  of  Hexham,  who,  in  speaking  of 
Bishop  Acca  (724-735),  says:  ''Sunt  tamen  qui 
dicunt  quod  eo  tempore  episcopalem  eodem  in 
Candida  Casa  inceperit  et  praeparaveritT^  It  is 
not  only  Cuthberht's  connection  with  the  land  of 
the  Niduarii  that  attests  his  influence  beyond 
the  Solway  Firth,  but  also  the  names  and  associa- 
tions of  the  later  Bishops  of  Whitherne. 

The  name  of  Pecthelm  or  Pehthelm,  as  Mr. 
Plummer  says,  means  ''helm  of  the  Picts."  Can  it 
have  been  given  him  when  he  became  Bishop  ?    He 

^  Plummer's  Bede^  ii.  129.  ^  H.E.^  v.  23. 

'  Church  of  Hexham^  Surtees  Society,  p.  35. 


THE  LATER  SEE  OF  WHITHERNE  39 

was  perhaps  a  native  of  South  Britain,  however,  or 
at  least  he  was  educated  in  the  south,  for  he  had 
been  a  deacon  and  monk  for  a  long  time  under  St. 
Aldhelm,  and  had  reported  how  many  miracles  were 
performed  at  the  grave  of  the  Wessex  bishop 
Haedde/  He  was  one  of  St.  Boniface's  many  cor- 
respondents. Bede  tells  us  that  one  of  the  stories 
he  himself  relates  about  the  vision  of  a  Mercian 
knight  was  told  to  him  by  ''the  venerable  Bishop 
Pecthelm."2 

Boniface  in  a  letter  asks  him  for  his  prayers  in 
behalf  of  his  own  very  onerous  mission,  and  sends 
him  some  small  presents  as  a  proof  of  his  affec- 
tion for  him  {'' parva  munuscula^  id  est,  corporate, 
pallium,  albis  stigmatibus  variatum  et  villosam  ad 
tergendos  pedes  servorum  Dei'').  He  also  asks  him 
for  his  opinion  on  a  technical  dogmatic  point. 
Throughout  '*  Francia,"  he  says,  and  the  Gauls 
(''per  totam  Franciam  et  per  Gallias'')  the  bishops 
held  it  to  be  a  very  great  crime  for  a  man  to  marry 
a  widow  to  whose  son  by  a  former  husband  he 
had  been  godfather  in  Baptism.  This,  he  says,  he 
cannot  find  forbidden  in  the  Canons,  nor  does  he 
know  in  what  category  of  sins  it  can  be  placed. 
He  ends  the  letter  with  the  pleasing  phrase, 
**  Sospitatem  vestram  Sanctis  vii'tutibus  projicere,  et 
longo  tempore  valere  te  cupio  in  Christo''  ^  The  letter 
is  dated  in  735  by  Diimmler.  That  is  the  year  in 
which  Florence  of  Worcester  puts  Pehthelm's  death. 

1  Bede,  H.E.,  v.  18.  ^  lb.  v.  13. 

'  Mon.  Germ.  Hist.,  Epist.  iii.  282-3. 


40     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

He  was  succeeded  by  Frithuwald  in  735  (see  Cont. 
of  Bede,  ed.  Plummer,  i.  361/  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Chronicle,  MSS.  D,  E,  and  F,^  which  say  he 
was  consecrated  at  York  on  the  15th  of  August,  in 
the  sixth  year  of  King  Ceolwulf,  and  died  on  the  7th 
of  May  763,  having  been  bishop  twenty-nine  years).^ 
He,  again,  was  succeeded  by  Pehtwine,  meaning 
"  Friend  of  the  Picts,"  who  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  Whitherne  on  the  17th  of  July  ^62,  at  ^Ifet  ee. 
He  died  on  the  19th  of  September  yy6,  after  being 
bishop  fourteen  years/    I  know  nothing  more  of  him. 

Let  us  now  return  to  Cuthberht.  We  followed 
his  story  to  the  time  when  he  was  spending  part  of 
his  latter  days  at  Carlisle. 

It  was  while  he  was  there  that  he  said  good-bye 
to  his  old  friend  Hereberht,  or  Herbert,  who  used 
to  pay  him  a  yearly  visit,  and  whose  name  still 
attaches  to  St.  Herbert's  Island  on  Derwentwater,^ 
There  he  passed  his  life  as  a  hermit,  and  there  still 
remains  a  ruined  chapel  associated  with  his  name. 

^  M.H.B.,  288.  2  /^^  ^42. 

'  His  name  suggests  some  connection  with  Frithogith,  the  Queen 
of  Wessex,  and  Frithuberht,  Bishop  of  Hexham,  who  were  con- 
temporaries of  his. 

*  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  MSS.  D,  E,  and  F. 

*  There  are  four  islands  on  Derwentwater.  St.  Herbert's  Island  is 
almost  in  the  centre  of  the  lake,  and  is  about  5  acres  in  size.  The 
cell  is  at  the  north  end,  which  is  almost  covered  with  wood. 
Hutchinson  two  centuries  ago  said  it  seemed  to  consist  of  two  rooms, 
the  outer  one  probably  the  chapel,  22  feet  by  16,  the  smaller  one 
being  the  cell.  The  latter  is  now  lost ;  the  walls  of  the  former  still 
remain,  at  a  height  of  about  3  feet  above  ground,  built  of  unwrought 
slate-stones  and  mortar.  Heaps  of  stones  from  the  building  lie 
around,  and  are  now  covered  with  ivy,  moss,  and  brambles,  and 
clasped  by  the  roots  of  trees.  The  metrical  life  of  St.  Cuthberht  says 
Herbert  retired  to  this  spot  by  the  advice  of  his  friend  Cuthberht 
(Eyre,  op.  cit.  58  and  59). 


ST.  CUTHBEUIIT  AND  ST.   HEREBERHT     41 

He  foretold  his  own  approaching  death  to  his 
friend,  and  promised  to  pray  that  as  they  had  served 
God  together  here,  so  they  might  go  to  heaven 
together  to  see  His  light.  They  were,  in  fact, 
reported  to  have  died  on  the  same  day,  and  seven 
centuries  later,  in  1374,  Thomas  de  Appleby,  the 
Bishop  of  Carlisle,  appointed  that  a  Mass  should  be 
said  by  the  Vicar  of  Crosthwaite  parish,  in  which 
Herbert  lived,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  two  saints 
in  the  island  where  Hereberht  had  died,  and  he 
granted  an  indulgence  of  forty  days  to  all  who 
crossed  the  water  to  pray  in  honour  of  the  two 
friends.^ 

Wordsworth  writes  of  them  in  some  very  prosaic 

lines : 

"...  But  he  (Cuthberht)  had  left 
A  fellow-labourer,  whom  the  good  man  loved 
As  his  own  soul;  and  when,  with  eye  upraised 
To  heaven,  he  knelt  before  the  crucifix, 
While  o'er  the  lake  the  cataract  of  Lodore 
Pealed  to  his  orisons,  and  when  he  paced 
Along  the  beach  of  this  small  isle,  and  thought 
Of  his  companion,  he  would  pray  that  both. 
Now  that  their  earthly  duties  were  fulfilled, 
Might  die  in  the  same  moment.     Nor  in  vain 
So  prayed  he,  as  our  chroniclers  report. 
Though  here  the  hermit  numbered  his  last  day, 
Far  from  St.  Cuthberht,  his  beloved  friend, 
These  holy  men  both  died  in  the  same  hour." 

Cuthberht  had  long  been  delicate,  the  result, 
no  doubt,  of  his  austerities,  and  in  the  year  686  he 
resigned  his  episcopal  charge  and  returned  to  his 

*  Bede^  Smith's  edition,  Appendix,  No.  23,  p.  783,  where  the  text 
of  the  indulgence  is  given. 


42     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

lonely  dwelling  at  Farne.^  We  are  told  how  the 
Lindisfarne  monks  crowded  about  his  boat  when 
he  left  them  and  asked  him  eagerly  when  he  would 
return.  "When  you  shall  convey  my  dead  body 
again  here,"  said  Cuthberht.  His  last  days  were 
described  by  Herefrid,  Abbot  of  Lindisfarne,  to 
Bede.  He  tells  us  that  on  the  27th  of  February, 
the  very  day  of  Cuthberht's  attack,  he  had  visited 
the  island  to  receive  the  Saint's  salutation,  and 
gave  him  the  usual  sign  on  his  arrival.  "He 
came  to  the  window  and  answered  my  saluta- 
tion with  a  groan."  Herefrid  then  asked  if  he 
was  suffering  from  his  old  disease,  dysentery,  or 
from  some  new  complaint,  and  craved  a  bless- 
ing from  him  "for  myself  and  my  monks,"  and 
proposed  to  quit  the  island,  as  the  tide  was 
favourable. 

Cuthberht  bade  him  return  home,  and  when 
God  should  take  his  soul  to  Himself  he  told  him  to 
bury  him  in  front  of  his  oratory  on  the  island  under 
the  eastern  side  of  the  cross  which  he  had  there 
erected.  "You  will  find,"  he  added,  "on  the 
north  side  of  my  dwelling  a  stone  coffin,  hid  in  the 
ground,  the  gift  of  the  venerable  Abbot  Cudda. 
I  also  wish  my  body  to  be  wrapped  in  a  linen  cloth 
which  was  given  to  me  by  Verca,  the  Abbess" 
{i.e.  the  Abbess  of  Tiningham),  "  which  I  was 
unwilling  to  wear  in  my  lifetime,  and  have  kept  for 

^  As  Bede  says,  when  he  had  had  passed  two  years  in  his 
episcopal  office,  knowing  in  spirit  that  his  last  day  was  at  hand,  he 
divested  himself  of  his  episcopal  duties  and  returned  to  his  much- 
loved  solitude  ( Vii.  Cuthb.^  ch.  36). 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  ST.  CUTHBERHT      43 

my  winding-sheet."  Herefrid  now  returned  to 
Lindisfarne  and  retailed  the  story  to  a  full  convent 
of  the  brethren,  and  told  them  to  pray  incessantly 
for  their  dying  bishop. 

A  storm  which  followed   lasted  five  days,  and 
prevented    access    to    the    island.     When    it    had 
abated    the    monks    put    out    to    sea.     On    their 
arrival  they  found  their  bishop  not  in  his  oratory, 
but  in  the    guest-hall  at   the  landing-pkice  on  the 
beach.      Herefrid  remained  to  nurse  him,  while  the 
rest  went  on   to   Bamborough  on  some  necessary 
business.      He  first  washed  one  of  the  Saint's  feet, 
which    had   long   troubled    him.     It    was   perhaps 
some  disorder  consequent  on  the  plague  from  which 
he  had  suffered  when  a  monk.      He  then  gave  him 
some  warm  wine.     After  this  Cuthberht  sat  down 
quietly  on  his  couch,  with  the  abbot  beside  him.    He 
told  his  friend  he  had  lately  taken  up  his  residence  on 
the  beach  so  that  he  should  be  more  easily  accessible 
to  those  who  might  visit  him  from  Lindisfarne,  and 
said  he  had  been  there  five  days  and  nights  without 
moving.     Archbishop   Eyre  suggests  that  he  had 
moved  in  order  that  the  monks  might  not  have  an 
excuse  for  entering  his  cell,  to  which  he  seems  to 
have  had  a  great  objection.     When  Herefrid  asked 
what  he  had  done  for  food,  he  produced  five  onions 
from    under    his    coverlet,     with     which    he    had 
moistened  his  parched  lips,  and  said  he  had  eaten 
nothing  else.      Herefrid  remarked  that  only  half  of 
one    had    been    eaten,     and    also    persuaded    his 
master  to  allow  some  of  the  monks  to  come  and 


44     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

look  after  him,  to  which  the  latter  now  consented. 
He  selected  two,  one  called  Bede  (not  the  historian) 
and  another  Walhstod. 

Herefrid  on  his  return  to  Lindisfarne  told  the 
brethren  of  the  Saint's  determination  to  be  buried 
at  Fame,  which  troubled  them  much.  They  had  a 
special  conference,  and  set  out  to  entreat  him  to  let 
his  remains  be  placed  in  the  cathedral,  but  he  urged 
that  it  would  be  better  he  should  remain  at  Fame, 
for,  since  he  was  notoriously  "a  servant  of  Christ," 
culprits  of  all  kinds  would  flock  to  his  tomb  {i.e.  for 
sanctuary),  and  give  much  trouble  to  the  Church  by 
compelling  it  to  intercede  with  the  potentates  of  the 
world.  They  replied  that  if  he  would  grant  their  wish 
they  were  prepared  to  undergo  any  trouble.  They 
were  anxious  to  have  his  tomb  in  the  cathedral,  so 
that  they  could  visit  it  when  they  wished,  and  could 
exclude  strangers  if  they  thought  good.  He  there- 
upon consented,  and  they  received  his  message  on 
their  knees. 

Feeling  that  his  life  was  ebbing,  he  asked  the 
brethren  to  convey  him  to  the  oratory.  It  was 
nine  in  the  morning.  The  door  was  open,  but  they 
knew  that  for  many  years  no  one  had  entered  it 
but  the  Saint  himself,  and  they  now  begged  that  one 
of  them  might  do  so,  and  thus  attend  to  his  wants. 
He  selected  Walhstod,  who  was  then  labouring 
from  a  dysentery.  According  to  Bede,  no  sooner  did 
Cuthberht  lean  on  his  arm  than  his  complaint  left  him. 

Abbot  Herefrid  used  to  sit  beside  him  to  obtain 
from  him  some  parting  message  for  the  brethren 


ST.   CUTHBERHTS  LAST  HOURS  45 

at  Lindisfarne  before  he  died.  He  reported  that 
he  spoke  but  little,  and  Insisted  on  their  cherishing 
peace,  humility,  unanimity  in  counsel,  and  hospitality, 
and  showed  a  special  abhorrence  of  those  who 
departed  from  Catholic  unity,  who  did  not  observe 
Easter  at  the  proper  time,  or  who  led  wicked  lives. 

Mr.  James  Raine  says  he  also  gave  the 
memorable  command  with  reference  to  his  body, 
to  which  Durham  and  Its  splendid  endowments 
exclusively  owe  their  origin. 

"Know  and  remember,"  said  he  to  Herefrid, 
"that  If  necessity  shall  ever  compel  you  out  of  two 
misfortunes  to  choose  one,  I  had  much  rather  that 
you  should  dig  up  my  bones  from  their  grave  and 
take  them  with  you  in  such  sojourn  as  God  shall 
provide,  than  that  you  should  on  any  account 
consent  to  the  Iniquity  of  schismatics  or  put  your 
necks  under  their  yoke."^  This  and  other  similar 
phrases  were  probably  Bede's  own  glosses. 

That  this  Injunction  contemplated  the  subsequent 
journeys  of  Cuthberht's  remains  after  the  destruc- 
tion of  Lindisfarne,  as  some  have  supposed,  seems 
to  me  preposterous.  It  probably  rather  had  in 
view  some  possible  heterodoxy  being  introduced 
at  Lindisfarne. 

The  end  was  now  at  hand,  and  we  are  told  that 
when  nocturns  had  come  round  Cuthberht  received 
from  Herefrid  the  communion  of  the  Lord's  body 

^  The  sentence,  like  others  of  a  similar  kind,  points  to  Cuthberht's 
having  had  no  doubt  about  his  own  superior  sanctity  and  of  the 
special  preciousness  of  his  own  remains  (Bede,  Vz'^.  Cuth.^  28-32). 


46  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

and  blood  to  strengthen  him  for  his  departure,  and 
with  eyes  and  hands  Hfted  up  heavenwards  he 
commended  his  soul  to  the  Lord  in  a  sitting  position, 
and  passed  away  without  a  groan  ''into  the  life  of 
the  fathers"  in  the  first  hours  of  Wednesday, 
March  20,  68y.^  He  was  probably  only  about  fifty- 
six,  for  he  was  just  grown  up  when  he  came  to 
Melrose  in  651. 

"  It  is  certain,"  says  Dr.  Bright,  ''that  he  received 
the  communion  in  both  kinds,  and  clearly  not 
during  Mass. 

"...  Restdens  antistes  ad  altar 
Pocula  degustat  vitae^   Christique  supiniim 
Sanguine  munit  iter." 

"  So  also  Guthlac,  munivit  se  communione  cor- 
poris et  sanguinis  Christi — both  kinds  being  kept 
ready  on  the  altar."  ^  In  the  case  of  hermits  this 
reservation  must  have  involved  some  difficulties. 

Herefrid  now  communicated  the  news  of  the 
death  to  the  other  brethren  who  were  on  the 
island,  whereupon  one  of  them  went  with  a  torch 
in  each  hand   to  an  eminence  and  thus  conveyed 


^  Bede,  H.E.^  iv.  29,  and  Vit.  Cuth.y  39  ;   Vit.  Anon.^  42. 

2  Bright,  op.  cif.  387  and  note  4  ;  Bede,  Vit.,  39,  and  de  Mirac. 
S.  Cuth.,  ch.  36.  Dr.  Lingard  says  that  at  the  celebration  of  Mass 
the  communion  was  distributed  under  both  kinds  ;  it  was  so  also 
with  the  viaticum  when  the  Mass  was  celebrated  in  the  presence  of 
the  sick.  When  this  was  not  convenient  or  possible,  the  rubric  ordered 
that  "  the  Housel "  consecrated  at  the  Mass  should  be  kept  for  the 
purpose.  "  We  enjoin,"  says  the  Canon,  "  that  the  priest  have  housel 
always  ready  for  those  who  need  it,  and  that  he  carefully  preserve  it 
in  purity."  In  monasteries  it  was  generally  preserved  in  the  chapel 
of  the  infirmary,  whence,  as  Bede  says,  it  was  brought  for  each  man 
(Lingard,  i.  46,  note). 


DEATH   OF  ST.   CUTHBERHT  47 

the  sad  news  to  the  community  at  Lindisfarne. 
His  signal  was  seen  by  one  of  them  who  was  in 
the  watchtower  there,  and  was  by  him  communi- 
cated to  the  rest  of  the  brethren  in  the  church, 
who  were  praying. 

As  soon  as  the  Saint  was  dead  the  brethren 
washed  his  body  from  head  to  foot  and  wrapped  it 
in  a  cere-cloth,  no  doubt  that  supplied  by  the  Abbess 
Verca,  and  enveloped  his  head  in  a  fair  cloth  or 
napkin.  They  then  clothed  him  in  the  vestments 
of  a  priest  [i.e.  a  cassock,  amice,  alb,  girdle,  stole, 
maniple,  and  chasuble).  The  sacramental  elements 
were  put  upon  his  breast,^  and  sandals  were  placed 
upon  his  feet.  He  was  then  conveyed  over  the 
water  to  Lindisfarne  and  buried  with  all  due 
honour  in  a  stone  coffin  (doubtless  that  which  had 
been  provided  by  Abbot  Cudda,  vide  supra),  and 
on  the  riofht  side  of  the  altar.^ 

Unlike  most  anchorites,  who  naturally  become 
testy  and  self-willed,  Cuthberht  was  a  gentle 
creature.  He  tolerated  counsel  from  his  brother 
monks,  who  could  not  always  accept  the  excessive 
austerities  he  chose  as  his  own  portion,  and  who 
begged  for  occasional  (very  occasional)  relaxations 
at  the  Church  festivals.  Thus  w^e  find  them  urging 
upon  him  one  day  that  while  fasts,  prayers,  and 
vigils  occupied  most  of  their  lives,  they  might 
at  least  rejoice  on  Christmas  day — ''  et  illi  inquitint 

^  This  is  the  way  both  Lingard  and  J.  Raine  understand  the  words 
in  the  Anonymous  Life  :  "  Oblatis  super  sanctum  pectus positis.^^ 
^  Bade,  Vit.  St.  Cut/i.,  ch.  40. 


4  8      GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  E  ARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

.  hodie  gaudeanius  in  Domino  .  .  .  cu7n  epulan- 
tibtis  nobis  et  diem  laetum  ducentibus^  ^ 

He  seems  to  have  accepted  the  rebuke  and  to 
have  conceded  its  reasonableness,  while  reminding 
them  again  and  again  of  the  need  for  continual 
watchfulness  and  prayer. 

Bede,   as   usual,    illustrates   this   phase   of  the 
Saint's  character  by  a  story.      He  tells  us   how  on 
one  occasion,  several  persons  having  gone  to   the 
island  to  visit  him,  he  spoke  comforting  words  to 
them,   adding  that   it    was    now    time   for   him    to 
return  to  his  cell,  and  he  bade  them  before  return- 
ino-  home  to  take  some  refreshment,  and    pointed 
out  a  goose   (probably  a  solan  goose)  which  was 
hancring   on    the    wall — '' pendebat    enim    auca    in 
parieter     This  he  bade  them  cook  and  eat  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord.     He  then  prayed  with  them  and 
blessed  them.     The  visitors,  as  they  had  brought 
other  food  with  them,   did   not  care    to   take   the 
goose,    for  which   act  of   disobedience   they  were 
punished  by  the  arrival  of  a  storm,   which   lasted 
seven  days,  during  which  they  were  shut  up  in  the 
island.     They  visited  the  Saint  (who  did  not  know 
they  had  not  followed  his  advice)  more  than  once 
to  ask  his  help.     He  bade  them  be  patient.     On 
the  seventh    day    he,  for  the  first  time,  saw  that 
the   goose    was   still    hanging  up.      He  then  duly 
reproved    them    for    their    disobedience,    and    told 
them  forthwith  to    put  it  in  a  cauldron  and    cook 
and  eat  it,  when  the  sea  would  again  become  quiet, 
1  Bede,  Vit.  St.  Cuth.,  ch.  27. 


ST.  CUTHBERHT  AND  THE  SOLAN  GOOSE     49 

and  they  might  return  home.  "  It  happened," 
says  Bede,  "that  directly  the  goose  began  to  boil 
in  the  cauldron  the  waters  of  the  sea  also  ceased 
their  boiling,  whereupon  they  returned  home  with 
joy,  and  yet  with  shame,  and  were  confirmed  in 
their  opinion  that  their  master  specially  cherished 
his  faithful  servants,  and  punished  those  who 
lightly  esteemed  him." 

"I  did  not,"  says  Bede,  "learn  the  miracle 
from  any  vague  authority,  but  from  the  statement 
of  one  who  was  present,  namely,  Cynemund,  a 
monk  of  venerable  life  and  a  priest,  and  belong- 
ing to  the  brotherhood  at  Lindisfarne."^ 

It  is  quite  necessary,  if  we  are  to  judge  of  the 
mental  simplicity  and  the  quite  naive  and  really 
childish  attitude  of  the  early  mediaeval  saints 
towards  the  problems  of  this  life  and  the  next, 
that  we  should  steep  ourselves  in  these  trivialities. 
They  measure  the  utter  collapse  of  the  human 
mind  at  this  time  in  view  of  all  issues  save  the 
pragmatic  cares  of  life.  We  must  always  remember 
that  this  habit  of  mind,  when  accompanied  by  the 
effects  of  excessive  self-torture,  was  much  more 
impressive  to  the  men  of  social  position  no  less 
than  to  the  simple  crowd  than  the  masculine 
virtues  of  the  great  ecclesiastics  of  the  mediaeval 
Church.^     The  effect  of  such  austerities  and  of  the 

1  Bede,  Vit.  St.  Cuth.,  ch.  36. 

^  The  extent  of  the  asceticism  practised  by  the  more  extravagant 

of  these  lonely  saints  is  almost  incredible.    "  A  still  further  advance  in 

rigour,"  says  Plummer  (i.  xxxi),  "  was  marked  by  the  inclusus  who  was 

walled  up  alive  in  his  cell.     One  saint  at  St.  Gallen,  styled  Eusebius 

VOL.  III. — 4 


5  o     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

morbid  lives  and  the  hysterical  visions  of  these 
lonely  recluses,  which  were  nothing  more  than 
the  counterparts  of  others  in  such  widely  separated 
religions  as  Muhammadanism,  Buddhism,  and 
Hinduism,  may  be  gathered  from  the  almost 
divine  worship  which  was  conceded  to  the 
anchorites,  as  well  as  from  the  quite  extrava- 
gant gifts  and  legacies  which  they  secured  for 
the  Church. 

This  cult  in  later  times  and  at  certain  shrines 
had  displaced  the  Invocation  of  the  Saviour  as  the 
great  Mediator,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the 
following  prayer  addressed  to  St.  Cuthberht  and 
preserved  at  Durham  : — 

"  Oratio  ad  Sanctum   Cuthbertum. 

"Sancte  Pater  Patriae,  Cuthberte  vir  inclyte  salve. 
Salve,  dans  miseris  saepe  salutis  opem. 
Salve  dulce  decus,  salve  spes  magna  tuorum. 
Virtus  nostra  vale  !     Vir  pietatis  age  ! 
Sit  tibi  laus.     Tibi  dignus  honor,  tibi  gratia  detur. 
Qui,  licet  indigno,  das  bona  saepe  mihi. 
Tu  mihi  magna  salus,  mihi  gloria  saepe  fuisti, 
Tu  me  dulcifluo  semper  amore  foves. 
Oh  quot  saepe  malis,  quibus  hostibus  atque  periclis 
Me,  Pater,  ereptum  prosperitate  foves 
Et  tibi  quid  dignum  reddam.  Pater,  O  Pie  Presul ! 
O  Pater !     O  clemens  Pastor !  adesto  mihi 
Ut  placet  et  nosti,  Pater,  auxiliare  petenti, 
Quaeso  memento  mei,  dulcis  Amice  Dei."  ^ 

Scotigena  {i.e.  the  Irishman),  is  reported  to  have  lived  for  thirty  years 
when  thus  walled  up  "(see  Pertz,  ii.  93,  188).     Of  another,  an  Irish- 
man called  Paternus,  it  was  said  by  Marianus  Scotus,  "  in  sua  clausola 
covibustus per  ignem  pa'tra7isivit.,  in  refrigeriutn^^  (Pertz,  v.  558). 
^  Raine,  Cuthberht^  96. 


EXCESSIVE  DEVOTION  PAID  TO  ANCHORITES     5  i 

It  was  not  only  in  such  prayers  that  the  Saviour 
in  later  times  was  forgotten  at  Cuthberht's  shrine. 
Thus  in  one  form  of  indulgence  issued  by  the  Bishop 
of  Ely  on  9th  July  1235,  to  those  who  collected 
money  for  the  fabric  of  the  nine  altars  at  Durham, 
repairs  of  the  church  there,  etc.,  we  find  the  following 
typical  sentence  :  "  We  for  our  part,  fully  confiding 
in  the  mercy  of  God  and  in  the  merits  of  the 
glorious  Virgin,  of  St.  Cuthberht,  and  of  all  the 
saints,  release  thirty  days  of  enjoined  penance  to 
all  those  who  shall  bestow  towards  the  fabric  afore- 
said the  pious  bounty  of  their  alms,  or  shall,  during 
the  seven  years  next  continuing,  visit  the  place 
aforesaid  for  the  purpose  of  prayer."  ^  The  Saviour 
is  not  mentioned  in  the  document  at  all. 

One  reason  for  the  extravagant  reputation  of 
St.  Cuthberht  was  doubtless  the  story  of  the  alleged 
incorruptibility  of  his  flesh  after  death,  which  lent 
itself  to  a  quaint  Latin  alliteration  in  the  words, 
*'  Cujus  caro  came  carens,''  and  which,  no  doubt, 
greatly  awed  the  devotees  in  days  when  the  most 
childish  credulity  prevailed. 

Eleven  years  after  Cuthberht's  burial,  the 
monks  at  Lindisfarne,  deeminof  that  nothing  would 
then  remain  of  him  save  his  bones,  proposed  to 
take  them  up  and  to  put  them  into  a  fitting  cofifin 
above  ground,  where  they  could  be  duly  honoured. 
This  wish  was  conceded  by  the  bishop,  and,  ac- 
cording to  Hegge's  quaint  words  in  his  legend  of 
St.    Cuthberht :    **  Whiles    they    opened  his  coffin 

^  Raine,  CuthberJit^  100. 


5  2  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

they  started  at  a  wonder.  They  lookt  for  bones 
and  found  flesh  ;  they  expected  a  skeleton  and  saw 
an  entire  bodle  with  joynts  flexible.  His  flesh  so 
succulent  that  there  only  needed  heat  to  make  his 
bodie  live  without  a  soul,  and  his  face  so  dissem- 
bling death  that,  while  elsewhere  it  is  true  that  sleep 
is  the  image  of  death,  here  death  was  the  image 
of  sleep.  Nay,  his  very  funerall  weeds  were  as 
fresh  as  if  putrefaction  had  not  dared  to  take  him 
by  the  coat."  ^  The  dismayed  monks  reported 
what  they  had  seen  to  Eadberht,  the  Bishop  of 
Lindisfarne,  who  was  spending  Lent  in  an  adjacent 
island.  They  took  with  them  the  outer  robes  in 
which  Cuthberht  had  been  buried,  and  which  they 
found  in  the  same  state  of  incorruption  as  the  body 
itself.  They  did  not  disturb  the  other  vestments, 
but  wrapped  the  remains  in  a  new  garment,  and 
then  placed  it  above  ground  in  a  coffin  which  they 
had  prepared.  The  bishop  just  referred  to,  who 
died  soon  after,  was  buried  in  the  grave  from  which 
the  body  of  St.  Cuthberht  had  been  taken. 

The  statement  about  the  remains  of  the  Saint 
having  been  found  uncorrupted  is  repeated  on  later 
occasions  when  the  coffin  was  again  opened.  It 
was  a  common  story  told  of  saints.  Its  truth  in  this 
case  is  sharply  criticised  by  Mr.  James  Raine,  who 
makes  an  unanswerable  case  against  the  authority 
of  the  legend.  He  quotes  some  very  damaging 
facts  on  the  other  side.  It  is,  at  all  events,  clear 
that   the   later   monks   always   took  care  to  have 

^  Hegge's  legend  of  St.  Cuthberht,  see  Raine,  Cuthberht^  67,  note. 


UNCORRUPTED  CONDITION  OF  SAINT'S  BODY      5  3 

the  face,  which  was  the  exposed  part  of  the  body, 
carefully  covered  with  a  face-cloth.  Of  this, 
Reginald,  who  described  the  opening  of  the  coffin 
in  1 104,  says,  very  frankly  :  ''  The  cheeks,  face,  and 
head  were  closely  covered  with  a  cloth,  which  was 
attached  to  all  the  parts  beneath  it  with  such 
anxious  care  that  it  was  as  it  were  glued  to  his 
hair,  skin,  temples,  and  beard.  Through  this  his 
nostrils  and  eyelids  were  sufficiently  visible,  but 
not  the  skin  below."  This  is  confirmed  by  William 
of  Malmesbury,  who  says,  ''Fades  tarn  stride  ob- 
voluta  stidario  ut  nullo  Abbatis  nisu  dissotiari 
possety  ^ 

This  is  surely  very  suspicious,  and  becomes 
conclusive  when  we  confront  it  with  another  fact 
mentioned  by  Raine.  He  gives  an  engraving  of 
the  Saints  skull  when  the  remains  were  exposed 
at  the  opening  of  the  coffin  in  1826,  and  says 
that  pieces  of  the  very  cloth  which  Reginald 
had  described  as  orlued  to  the  face  were  still 
found  fastened  to  it  with  no  trace  of  flesh  inter- 
vening. Not  only  so,  but  he  says  the  eye-holes 
of  the  skull,  in  order  to  give  the  face-cloth  the 
projecting  appearance  of  eyes  In  their  respective 
places,  had  been  originally,  and  still  continued, 
stuffed  full  with  a  whitish  composition,  which  still 
admirably  retained  its  colour  and  consistency,  and 
which  upon  being  removed  from  its  place  was 
easily  pressed  into  a  powder  by  the  finger  and 
thumb.^ 

^  G.P.^  ed.  Hamilton,  p.  275.  *  Raine,  214. 


5  4     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

All  this  goes  to  show  that  the  story  was 
based  on  quite  sophisticated  evidence.  William  of 
Malmesbury  names  five  saints,  of  all  of  whom  it 
was  said  that  their  bodies  remained  uncorrupted, 
namely,  ^thelburga,  Wiburga,  Edmund  of  East 
Anglia,  Alphege,  and  Cuthberht. 

Cuthberht's  case  was,  however,  the  critical 
one,  and  we  find  St.  Dunstan  at  a  later  time 
enforcing  the  truth  of  incorruption  in  the  case  of 
St.  Edmund  by  quoting  it  to  the  Abbot  of  Fleury. 
Thus  he  says  :  *'  Quia  sanctus  .  .  .  Cuthbertus  .  ,  . 
non  solum  adhuc  exspectat  diem  primae  resurrectionis 
incorrupto  corpore,  sed  etiavt  perfusus  quodam  blando 
tepore''^  Reginald  says  that  the  body  when  ex- 
posed showed  the  Saint  to  have  been  of  a  tall  and 
manly  stature. 

The  cult  of  Cuthberht  was  very  widespread, 
especially  within  the  radius  of  the  influence  of  the 
great  northern  minster  on  the  Tees.  Miss  Arnold- 
Forster,  in  her  interesting  and  learned  book  on  the 
dedications  of  English  churches,  remarking  on  the 
Saint's  wide  popularity,  says  that  about  ninety 
churches  still  bear  his  name.  These  she  enumer- 
ates.^ Seventy  of  them  are  ancient  and  the  rest 
belong  to  the  last  century.  Of  these,  she  thinks 
Crayke  and  Carlisle  are  probably  the  oldest. 
Several  of  those  mentioned  in  Bishop  Wessington's 
old  list  have  had  their  dedications  altered,  notably 
that    of    Middleton,   near   Manchester — ''  the  most 

^  Stubbs,  Dunstan^  p.  379  ;  Plummer,  ii.  271. 
2  Op.  cit.  iii.  p.  350. 


WIDESPREAD  CULT  OF  ST.   CUTHBERHT      55 

southern  point  in  the  Saint's  wanderings,  which  is 
now  known  as  St.  Leonard's,  the  French  hermit 
having  dispossessed  the  EngHsh  one."^  Among 
the  daughter  churches  of  Durham  which  were 
dedicated  to  the  Saint,  that  of  Darlington,  buih  in 
the  twelfth  century,  is  remarkable.  Outside  of  the 
Durham  diocese  he  also  shared  in  the  dedication 
of  the  two  great  abbey  churches  of  Bolton  and 
Worksop. 

While  for  several  centuries  his  name  became 
almost  obsolete  as  a  dedicating  one — the  church 
of  Milbourne,  in  Westmorland,  in  1355,  being  the 
last  in  the  known  list  of  such  foundations — it  has 
revived  during  the  last  half-century.  One  such 
exists  in  Durham.  Of  these  modern  dedications, 
twenty  are  named  by  Miss  Arnold- Forster. 

It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  the  Saint's  fame 
was  largely  confined  to  the  north  of  England,  and 
especially  that  part  of  it  where  the  influence  of 
Durham  extended.  Shropshire  is  the  only  county 
in  the  southern  province  with  two  dedications  to 
him,  while  there  is  one  in  each  of  the  sporadically 
distributed  counties  of  Somerset,  Suffolk,  Derby- 
shire, Dorsetshire,  and  Hereford.^ 

Another  excellent  proof  of  the  influence  of  the 
Saint  was  the  enormous  estate  which  eventually 
accumulated  in  the  hands  of  the  priory  he  founded. 

In  the  Anonymous  Life  of  St.  Cuthberht,  and 
according  to  Symeon  of  Durham,  King  Ecgfrid  and 
Archbishop   Theodore   made   over   to   him  at    his 

1  Miss  Amold-Forster,  ii.  p.  87.  ^  Qp^  cit.  ii.  89-91. 


5  6  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

consecration  as  bishop,  the  whole  of  the  land 
in  the  city  of  York  which  extended  from  the  Wall 
to  the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  as  far  as  the  great  gate 
towards  the  west,  and  from  the  wall  of  that  church 
as  far  as  the  City  wall  upon  the  south.  They  also 
gave  him  the  vill  of  Creca  (now  Crayke,  near 
Easingwold),  with  a  circuit  of  three  miles  round  it, 
*'  that  he  might  have  a  dwelling  in  which  to  rest 
on  his  way  to  York  or  on  his  return  thence," 
and  where  he  planted  some  monks.  As  the  land 
there,  however,  was  inadequate,  he  received  an 
addition  at  Lugubalia  (otherwise  called  Luel),  i.e. 
Carlisle,  which  embraced  a  circuit  of  fifteen  miles, 
where  he  planted  a  convent  of  nuns,  and  where,  as 
we  have  seen,  he  consecrated  the  Queen  as  a  nun. 
There  he  also  founded  schools  for  the  improvement 
of  Divine  service.^ 

It  was  on  the  estate  just  quoted,  namely,  in  the 
Royal  vill  at  Exanford  (probably  some  place  on 
the  river  Exe  in  Cumberland),  that,  after  Cuthberht 
performed  the  miracle  of  raising  a  dead  boy,  King 
Ecgfrid  also  gave  him  the  land  called  Cartmel, 
and  all  the  Britons  with  it,  and  also  the  vill 
of  Suthgedluit  (Mr.  Arnold  suggests  that  this  is 
one  of  the  Yealands  on  Morecambe  Bay),  and 
what  pertained  to  it.  Symeon  adds  the  rather 
cryptic  sentence:  '' Haec  omnia  sibi  a  sancto 
Cuthberto  commissa  bonus  abbas  Cineferth  filius 
Cygincg  sapienter  ordinavit  sicut  voluit.''  ^     Symeon 

^  Vit.  Anon.  St.  Cuth.^  13;   Symeon,  Hist.  Ecc.  Dun..,  i.  chap.  ix. 
2  Sym.  Dun.,  Hist.  St.  Cuth.  (ed.  T.  Arnold),  ch.  vi.  p.  200. 


GIFTS  OF  LAND  MADE  TO  CUTHBERHT      57 

further  says  that  Ecgfrid,  who  was  absent  on  his 
war  with  Wulfhere  of  Mercia,  having  been  greatly 
helped  by  the  prayers  of  St.  Cuthberht,  gave  him 
Carrum  {i.e.  Carham)  and  all  that  belonged  to  it 
as  a  reward. 

When  the  Danes  attacked  and  destroyed  Lindis- 
farne  in  the  year  875,  the  bishop  and  monks  there 
removed  the  body  of  their  saint  from  its  shrine, 
and  having  placed  the  head  of  St.  Oswald,  a 
few  bones  of  St.  Aidan,  some  bones  of  Bishops 
Eata,  Eadfrid,  ^thelwold  the  anchorite,  and, 
according  to  Leland,  those  of  Abbot  Ceolwulf, 
in  his  coffin,  set  out  ''they  knew  not  whither." 
Their  long  wanderings  lasted  for  seven  years  until 
the  Danes  had  been  overcome  by  King  Alfred. 
Reginald  says  that  at  the  time  they  escaped  it  was 
high  water  at  Lindisfarne,  but  the  waves  drew 
back  and  gave  them  a  passage  on  dry  ground  ! ! ! 
They  probably  first  fled  to  the  Northumbrian 
hills.  Symeon  says  they  removed  from  place  to 
place  in  Northumbria,  like  sheep  fleeing  from 
wolves.  During  their  wanderings  four  only  (some 
of  the  accounts  say  seven)  of  the  monks  were 
allowed  to  touch  the  coffin  of  the  Saint.  At  first 
it  would  appear  that  the  coffin  was  carried  on  their 
shoulders,  but  presently  in  a  vision  he  is  said,  ac- 
cording to  Reginald,  to  have  suggested  an  easier 
way  of  portage,  and  miraculously  supplied  a  horse 
and  carriage  on  wheels  ;  Symeon  calls  it  a  carrum, 
and  also  a  caballus  vehictihcs.  The  four  privileged 
persons  allowed  to  touch  the  bier  and  its  contents 


5  8     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

were  called  Hunred,  Stitheard,  Edmund,  and 
Franco,  and  Symeon  says  there  were  many  of  their 
descendants  in  Northumbria,  both  lay  and  clerical, 
living  in  his  day,  who  were  proud  of  a  tie  with  a 
man  who  had  been  so  honoured.^ 

Three  years  later,  namely,  in  SyS,  St.  Cuthberht 
in  the  form  of  a  beggar  is  said  by  Symeon  to  have 
solicited  charity  from  King  Alfred  at  Athelney, 
who  gave  him  a  little  of  the  food  he  was  eating, 
whereupon  the  Saint  promised  and  secured  him  a 
victory  in  the  battle  he  was  about  to  fight  at 
Assandune.^ 

To  return  to  the  Saint  and  his  wanderings. 
Prior  Wessington  of  Durham  reports  how  his 
remains  ceased  not  to  perform  miracles  at  the 
various  places  where  they  halted.  Thus  it  came 
about  that  in  the  western  parts  {m  partihts  occi- 
dentalibus)  wherever  the  remains  rested,  many 
churches  and  chapels  were  afterwards  built  in  his 
honour.  Wessington  compiled  and  placed  over  the 
choir  door  of  the  Church  of  Durham  in  1416a  list  of 
such  of  them  as  he  knew  of,  which  is  still  preserved, 
and  which  is  given  by  Raine  as  follows  : — 

Lancastrieschire.  —  Furnes,  Kirkby  Ireleth,^ 
Haxheved,*  Aldynham,^  Lethom  in  Amun- 
drenesse,^     Meler,^     Halsall,^     Birnsale     in 


^  Hist.  Dun.  Eccl..,  ii.  xii.  ^  lb.  x. 

3  i.e.  "  West  Kirkby." 

*  Now  knoAvn  as  Hawkshead,  between  Windermere  and  Coniston. 

^  Aldingham,  east  of  Furness.  ^'  Now  called  Lytham. 

^  Mellor,  three  miles  north-west  of  Blackburn. 

^  Ten  miles  from  Ormskirk, 


WANDERINGS  OF  ST.  CUTHBERHT'S  BODY    59 

Craven,^  Emmyldon  in  Coupeland,^  Lorton, 
Kelett  in  Lonsdall  and  Middleton  near  Man- 
chester. 

Cleyvfland  {i.e.  Cleveland). — Lethom,  Kildale, 
Merton,  Wilton,  Ormisby. 

Rychmondeschir,  Southcouton,  Forsete,  Over- 
ton near  York,  Barton  (and,  on  the  authority 
of  Roger  Gale,  Marske,  which  the  prior  had 
overlooked). 

Yorke. — Pesholme,  Fysshlake,  Acworth. 

Duremschir. — Eccles,  Cath.  Dunelm,  Cestre, 
Redmersell,  Capella  in  Castr.  Dunelm. 

West77terlande.  —  Cleburn  (now  Cliburne) 
(Sanderson  adds  Dufton). 

Commerlande. — Church  in  Carlisle,  Edynhall, 
Salkeld,  Plumbland  (Sanderson  adds 
Bewcastle). 

Nortkzcmberlande.  —  Norham,  Bedlyngton, 
Carram  {i.e.  Carham,  near  Coldstream), 
Ellysden  in  Ryddesdale,  Haydon  brigg, 
Beltyngeham.^ 

Accepting  Wessington's  statement  that  a  church 
dedicated  to  Cuthberht  in  early  times  meant  that 
the  Saint  and  his  company  had  rested  there,  and, 
further,  that  the  cortege  started  from  Lindisfarne 
and  finished  its  journey  at  Craike  ;    Raine,   using 

*  This  is  situated  in  Yorkshire. 

2  Embleton  in  Cumberland  ;  Lorton,  the  next  entry,  is  in  the  same 
county. 

3  Raine's  Cuthberht,  44,  note.  In  addition  to  the  churches  it  is 
very  probable  that  crosses  were  also  set  up  at  other  resting-places 
of  the  Saint,  which  were  of  less  importance. 


6o  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

the  above  list,  tries   to    trace   their  journey.     He 
says  :  "  Elsdon^  was  the  first  place  towards  which 
the    fugitives    directed    their    steps.       They   then 
travelled  down  the  Reed,  from  which  they  turned 
upwards   to    Haydon    Bridge.^      Afterwards    they 
ascended  the   South  Tyne    to  Beltingham,  thence 
they   followed   the    line   of    the    Roman    Wall   to 
Bewcastle,  and  then  went  in  a  southern  direction 
to  Salkeld,  three  miles  south-west  of  Kirkoswald, 
thence    to    Edenhall,    and    thence    to    Plumbland, 
four  miles  south   south-east  of   Cockermouth,   so- 
called,  according  to  Reginald,  from  the  dense  woods 
round    it,  and  afterwards  into   Lancashire   to  the 
places  above  mentioned.     Next  they  came  towards 
the    Derwent,   whence    they    determined,    at    the 
instance  of   Eardulf,    Bishop   of   Lindisfarne,   and 
Eadred,  Abbot  of  Carlisle,  to  pass  over  Into  Ireland, 
as  the  only  place  of  safety.     They  hired  a  ship, 
which    was  to    meet   them    at   the    mouth    of  the 
Derwent,    In    Cumberland,   and    the    body  of  the 
Saint   was  put  on  board.     Those  who  supported 
the  Bishop  and  the  Abbot  in  this  course  had  not 
told    the    majority    of    the    company,    who   were 
taken  by  surprise  when  they  found  themselves  left 
behind  on   the  beach.      '  Farewell,  turn  the  prow 
to   Ireland,'   said  the   former.     The  majority  who 
were   left  behind  now  appealed  to  St.    Cuthberht 
not    to    allow    himself     to     be    thus    carried    off 
as   a   prisoner,    while    they    were    left   like    sheep 

^  In  Redesdale,  once  covered  with  forest  and  morasses. 
^  Six  miles  from  Hexham. 


WANDERINGS  OF  ST.  CUTHBERHrS  BODY     6i 

to  the  teeth  of  wolves.  Thereupon  a  storm 
arose  and  the  ship  had  to  return,  and  in  the 
confusion  the  book  of  St.  Cuthberht's  Gospels, 
now  known  as  the  Lindisfarne  Gospels,  fell  into 
the  sea  and  disappeared.  According  to  Symeon, 
Cuthberht  thereupon  appeared  in  a  vision  and  told 
one  of  them,  named  Hunred,  where  they  would  find 
it.  They  accordingly  proceeded  along  the  coast 
as  far  as  Whitherne,  in  Galloway.  There  they 
found  it  on  the  sands  almost  three  miles  from  hiorh- 
water  mark  during  the  ebb  of  a  spring  tide."^  In 
the  list  of  the  relics  at  Durham  we  have  the  entry  : 
"  Item.  The  book  of  St.  Cuthberht  with  the  copy 
of  the  Evangelists."^  While  in  this  wild  country 
the  travellers  suffered  much  from  want  of  proper 
food,  and  for  some  days  lived  on  a  horse's  head 
which  they  had  salted  and  some  stale  cheese.  The 
former  they  had  bought  for  five  silver  "sicli" 
[quinque  solidorum  sic  lis  argenti)} 

Returning  to  Raines  account  of  the  itinerary 
of  the  Saint  and  his  conductors.  After  recover- 
ing the  book  they  proceeded  to  Westmorland, 
where  they  lingered  a  while,  first  at  Cliburne 
and  next  at  Dufton.*  They  then  crossed  over 
Stainmore  into  Teesdale,  where,  as  the  name 
of  the  hamlet  shows,  they  stayed  a  while  at 
Cutherston.^  Thence  crossing  the  hills  to  Marske  ^ 
they  went  to  Forcett  and  Barton,  and  then  south- 

^  Sym.,  Hist.  Ecc.  Dun..,  ii.  12.  ^  Raine,  Cuthberht.,  126. 

^  Reg.  of  Durham,  ch.  xv. 

*  Under  the  shelter  of  Dufton  fells.  ^  i.e.  Cuthberht's  stone. 

^  In  Swaledale. 


6  2     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

wards  to  Craike,  to  a  property  given  to  Cuthberht 
on  his  consecration,  lingering  on  the  way  at 
Cowton,  and  afterwards  at  the  various  places  in 
Cleveland  above  mentioned.  Raine  says  he  had 
omitted  the  legend  of  Cuthberht's  voyage  in  a  stone 
boat-shaped  coffin  down  the  Tweed  from  Melrose 
to  Tilmouth,  the  remains  of  which  were  reported  to 
have  been  preserved  at  the  latter  place.  Remains 
of  a  stone  coffin  are  indeed  there,  but  the  story 
itself  was  an  invention  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  it  was  not  the  only  one  of  the  kind  made  by 
Lambe,  an  editor  of  a  poem  on  Flodden  Field.-^ 

The  cavalcade  reached  Craike  in  the  autumn 
of  882.^  There  Abbot  Eadred  seems  to  have 
ingratiated  himself  with  the  Danish  chief  Guthred, 
under  whose  auspices  the  brethren  moved  to 
Cuncacestre  (now  Chester-le-Street),  where  Bishop 
Eardulf  had  fixed  his  episcopal  see.  There,  accord- 
ing to  Symeon,  he  built  them  a  wooden  cathedral, 
which  the  Danish  ruler  handsomely  endowed.^ 
It  remained  there  for  a  hundred  and  thirteen 
years,  and  presently  the  King,  at  the  bidding  of 
St.  Cuthberht,  gave  them  all  the  land  between  the 
Tyne  and  the  Wear  as  a  perpetual  possession  for 
the  Saint,  with  the  right  of  inviolable  sanctuary, 
so  that  any  one  who  reached  it  was  safe  for  thirty- 
seven  days.* 

The   next  important  event  in   the  fortunes   of 

1  Raine,  43-47- 

2  There,  according  to  Symeon  of  Durham,  they  were  sheltered  by 
Abbot  Geve,  and  stayed  four  months  {Hist.  Dun.  Ecc,  ii.  ch.  13). 

^  lb.  28.  *  Sym.  Dun.,  ib.  13. 


VISIT  OF  ATHELSTANE  TO  THE  SHRINE     63 

the  Saint's  remains  was  the  visit  of  King  Athel- 
stane  to  his  shrine  at  Chester-le-Street  on  his 
way  to  Scotland  to  punish  King  Constantine  for 
the  breach  of  his  treaty  with  him.  The  lordly 
gifts  presented  by  the  King  on  this  visit  are  duly 
enumerated,^  and  are  worth  recording  here.  They 
consisted  of  a  copy  of  the  Gospels,  which  contained 
a  statement  that  it  had  been  presented  to  St. 
Cuthberht  by  Athelstane;^  "two  chasubles,  one 
alb,  one  stole  with  a  maniple,  one  girdle  [cinguhcni), 
three  altar-cloths,  one  chalice  of  silver,  two  patens, 
one  made  of  gold  and  the  other  of  Greek  work 
(Graeco  opere),  one  censer  of  silver,  one  cross 
ingeniously  made  of  gold  and  ivory,  one  royal  cap 
{^Regius  pileus)  woven  of  gold,  two  tablets  of  gold 
and  silver  (probably  they  were  two  paxes),  one 
missal,  two  copies  of  the  Gospels  ornamented  with 
gold  and  silver,  a  Life  of  St.  Cuthberht  written 
in  verse  and  prose  (doubtless  Bede's  two  lives), 
seven  palls,  three  curtains  {co7'tinas)  (these  were 
probably  to  be  hung  on  iron  rods  on  each  side  of 
the  altar),  three  pieces  of  tapestry  (tapecia)  (doubt- 
less to  cover  the  bare  walls  of  the  chancel),  two 
cups  [coppas)  of  silver  with  covers,  three  large  bells, 
two  horns  fabricated  of  gold  and  silver,  two  banners, 
one  lance,  and  two  bracelets  of  gold."^ 

Athelstane's    son    Eadmund    also    visited    the 
shrine  on   his    campaign    in    Scotland  to    ask    the 

^  See  Cott.  MS.,  Brit.  Mus.,  Claudius  D,  iv. 

^  It  was  in  the  Cotton  Library,  Otho  B,  9,  and  was,  unfortunately, 
burnt  in  the  Cotton  fire  in  1731. 
^  See  Raine,  op.  cit.  51  and  52. 


64  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Saint's  aid.  He  offered  his  prayers  there,  and 
placed  two  bracelets  which  he  took  from  his  own 
arms  on  his  body,  together  with  two  palls  of 
Greek  workmanship  (duo  pallia  Graeca)} 

The  next  notable  visitor  who  is  recorded  among 
those  who  went  to  the  Saint's  shrine  was  a  monk 
from  Winchester  whose  narrative  is  extant.  He 
tells  us  he  brought  with  him  to  Durham  some  vest- 
ments, and  put  them  with  his  own  hands  on  Cuth- 
berht's  body.^  These  vestments  no  doubt  included 
the  famous  stole  and  maniple  still  preserved  in  the 
library  at  Durham,  which  had  been  embroidered  for 
Bishop  Fritheston  of  Winchester  by  Queen  ^thel- 
dreda,  who  had  died  in  933,  as  is  recorded  in  a 
stitched  inscription  on  the  vestments  themselves. 

Presently,  and  in  995,  the  body  of  St.  Cuthberht, 
with  its  treasures,  was  again  removed,  in  consequence 
of  a  praemonition  received  by  Bishop  Aldune  of  a 
fresh  threatened  attack  from  the  Danes,  and  was 
taken  to  Ripon  for  two  or  three  months.  Symeon 
says  the  removal  of  the  whole  community,  young 
and  old,  with  its  property  took  place  without  any 
mishap.^  It  was  then  determined  to  build  a  fresh 
church  at  Durham,  on  a  site  which,  according  to 
Symeon,  had  been  pointed  out  by  Cuthberht  himself. 
The  first  church  there  (a  wooden  one)  was  replaced 
by  Bishop  Aldune  by  a  stone  one  in  999,  in  which 
the  Saint's  body  was  reverently  deposited. 

The    famous    Bishop    Alfwold    of    Sherborne, 

*  MS.  Cotton,  Claudius  D,  iv.  fol.  221  ;  Raine,  53  and  note. 

*  Thorpe,  Diplo?n.,  321.  2  H.D.E.^  iii. 


ST.  CUTHBERHTS  SHRINE  65 

1045-1058,  also  visited  the  shrine  of  St.  Cuthberht. 
WilHam  of  Malmesbury  says  of  him  that  he  was 
devoted  to  the  memory  of  the  Saint  and  continu- 
ally repeated  an  antiphon  about  him,  the  words  of 
which  he  gives.^  We  are  told  he  had  the  audacity 
to  raise  the  lid  of  the  coffin  and  to  talk  with  the 
dead  man  as  with  a  friend.  He  also  put  a  pledge 
of  his  love  on  his  head  (xejiiohim  in  perpetui  pig7ius 
amor  is  deposuit)} 

The  church  became  the  nucleus  and  mother  of 
the  splendid  cathedral  w^e  all  still  so  much  venerate, 
of  which  St.  Cuthberht's  shrine  was  the  greatest 
treasure,  and  which  was  begun  by  Bishop  Carilef. 
While  the  new  cathedral  was  building,  St.  Cuth- 
berht's remains .  were  removed  to  a  fine  stone 
tomb  In  the  cloister  garth,  raised  a  yard  above  the 
ground,  and  was  covered  with  a  large  and  beautiful 
broad  marble  slab.  They  were  translated  thence 
in  1 104  to  the  stone  feretory  or  bier  on  which  the 
metal  shrine  stood,  which  had  been  prepared  for  it 
in  Carilef's  cathedral,  and  was  placed  behind  the 
screen  and  in  the  apse  of  the  nave.  Reginald  says 
the  feretory  was  supported  by  nine  pillars. 

I  will  now  revert  to  an  interesting  story  en- 
shrined in  one  of  Reginald  of  Durham's  miraculous 
tales.  "  In  times  of  old,"  he  says,  '*  there  flourished 
one  Alfred  Westoue  (who  was  the  grandfather  of 
Ailred  of  Riveaulx,  to  whom  Reginald  dedicated  his 
book),  who  for  the  love  he  bore  to  St.  Cuthberht 
was  granted  peculiar  privileges,  for  as  often  as 
1  G.P.,  ii.  82.  2  /^^ 

VOL.  III. — 5 


66     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

he  pleased  he  might  freely  open  the  coffin  of  the 
Saint  and  might  wrap  him  in  new  robes  as  he 
thouo-ht  fit,  and  he  could  obtain  from  him  what- 
ever  he  wished  without  delay ;  and  from  long 
familiarity  we  are  told  he  attained  to  such  a  degree 
of  cordiality  with  him  that  it  was  his  custom  to 
cut  the  overgrowing  hair  of  his  venerable  head, 
to  adjust  it  by  dividing  and  smoothing  it  with  an 
ivory  comb,  and  to  cut  the  nails  of  his  fingers, 
tastefully  reducing  them  to  roundness."  The 
purpose  of  this  might  well  be  to  secure  some  relics 
to  dispose  of,  to  such  devotees  as  would  pay 
handsomely  for  them.  "  He  was  in  the  habit  of 
showing  some  of  his  friends  portions  of  the  cuttings 
of  the  hair,  and  by  way  of  experiment,  after  he  had 
filled  a  censer  with  burning  coals,  he  would,  by  aid 
of  silver  tongs  (cumforcipe),  which  he  had  fashioned 
for  the  express  purpose,  expose  a  single  hair  to 
the  flames  in  the  sight  of  all.  But  the  hair,"  adds 
the  ingenuous  narrative,  ''would  immediately,  after 
the  fashion  of  gold,  glisten  in  the  midst  of  the  fire 
and .  undergo  neither  injury  nor  diminution  ;  and 
after  an  hour,  when  removed  by  the  tongs,  would 
assume  its  former  colour.  Whence,"  says  Reginald, 
**  it  is  believed  those  forceps,  along  with  the  large 
ivory  comb,  perforated  in  its  centre,  are  found  in 
the  coffin  of  the  blessed  Bishop,  still  retaining  their 
original  beauty  and  freshness,  and  with  the 
reverence  of  honour  are  placed  upon  a  tablet  by 
the  side  of  his  body." 

All     this    interesting    story    is    introduced    by 


A  STORY   OF  ALFRED  WESTOUE  67 

Reginald  to  illustrate  a  quaint  miracle  which  he  has 
to  tell.  In  this  he  says,  that  by  the  carelessness  of 
the  custodian  Alfred,  a  hole  in  Cuthberht's  coffin 
had  been  left  open,  whereupon  a  weasel,  which  the 
famous  teller  of  stories  diagnoses  in  a  primitive 
way  as  fera  quaedavi  subterranea  quae  7ion  esse 
dinoscitur  bestia  pecudis  sed  reptile  quoddain  ter- 
remcm  animae  viventis  .  .  ,  de  muritmi  genere,  and 
which  was  about  to  produce  young,  made  its  nest 
in  a  corner  in  a  quiet  place  of  the  coffin  in  which  to 
do  so.  She  used  to  enter  the  hole  which  was  near 
the  Saint's  feet  without  disturbing  his  remains  or 
garments  when  going  to  and  fro  to  procure  food  for 
its  little  ones.  The  Saint  was  very  angry  with  the 
custodian  for  this  neglect,  and  bade  him  expel  the 
intruder.     This  was  speedily  accomplished.^ 

The  silver  forceps  or  tongs  and  the  comb  above- 
mentioned  as  having  afterwards  been  found  in  his 
coffin,  had  nothing  to  do  with  Cuthberht's  day 
therefore,  but  dated  from  post-Conquest  times. 
The  forceps  disappeared  at  the  Reformation,  but 
the  comb  still  remains  in  the  Library  at  Durham. 

We  will  now  return  to  the  later  translation  of  the 
Saint's  body,  of  which  we  have  two  minute  accounts, 
one  from  an  anomymous  writer,  and  the  other  from 
Reginald  of  Durham. 

The  former  tells  us  that  the  brethren  opened 

the  outermost  receptacle  one  day  as  soon  as  it  was 

dark,  and  prostrated  themselves  before  the  venerable 

chest  amid  tears  and  prayers,  and  then,  aided  by 

^  Reginald  of  Durham,  op.  cit.  ch.  26  ;  Raine,  op.  cit.  58  and  59. 


6  8     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Instruments  of  iron,  they  forced  it  open,  when  inside 
they  found  another  chest  covered  on  all  sides  with 
hides  carefully  fixed  to  it  by  iron  nails  and  bands. 
At  the  command  of  the  prior  they  broke  open  the 
iron  bands  and  inside  found  a  coffin  of  wood  (which 
had  been  covered  all  over  with  a  coarse  cloth  of 
a  threefold  texture)  of  the  length  of  a  man,  and 
covered  with  a  lid  of  the  same  description.  The 
brethren  were  convinced  that  this  was  the  actual 
coffin  in  which  the  Saint  lay,  and  made  up  their 
minds  not  to  disturb  his  remains  any  more,  but 
were  persuaded  by  one  of  their  companions  named 
Leofwin  (''meaning  in  Anglian  a  dear  friend,"  says 
our  reporter),  that  it  was  their  duty  to  open  this 
second  coffin  also.  They  accordingly  moved  the 
venerable  body  from  behind  the  altar  into  the 
middle  of  the  choir,  where  there  was  more  ample 
space  for  their  investigation.  They  first  took  off 
the  linen  cloth  which  enveloped  the  coffin,  and  then 
tried  to  peer  into  the  interior  through  a  chink  with 
a  candle,  but  without  success.  They  accordingly 
lifted  the  lid,  and  then  found  a  third  cover  resting 
on  transverse  bars,  and  occupying  the  whole  length 
and  breadth  of  the  coffin,  so  as  to  conceal  its  con- 
tents entirely.  On  its  upper  part,  near  the  head, 
lay  a  book  of  the  Gospels.  They  raised  this  lid  by 
means  of  two  iron  rings  fixed  in  it  to  lift  it  by,  one 
at  the  head  and  the  other  at  the  feet.  Reginald  ^ 
describes  this  innermost  coffin  {theca)  as  a  quad- 
rangular chest  with  a  fiat  cover,  like  the  lid  of  a  box. 

^  Op.  cit.  ch.  43. 


u 


S} 


I 


ST.   CUTHBERHTS  COFFIN  69 

It  was  made  entirely  of  black  oak.  He  doubts,  he 
says,  whether  "  it  had  acquired  this  colour  by  age, 
from  some  device,  or  from  nature."  The  whole 
of  it,  he  adds,  was  externally  carved  with  admirable 
enorravinof  of  minute  and  delicate  work.  The 
design  was  divided  into  small  compartments, 
occupied  by  divers  beasts,  flowers,  and  images, 
which  seemed  to  be  inserted,  engraved,  or  furro\^'ed 
out  in  the  wood.  This  excellent  description  is 
fully  borne  out  by  the  remains  of  the  coffin  still 
extant.  These  designs,  which  are  made  with 
incised  lines,  seem,  says  Mr.  Raine,  to  have  been 
cut  on  the  surface  of  the  wood  by  a  sharp  pointed 
knife  or  chisel,  and  partly  by  some  instrument  such 
as  the  "scrieve"  of  the  woodman;  this  is  con- 
firmed by  the  fact  that  a  slight  single  line  made  with 
the  point  of  a  knife,  but  now  scarcely  discernible, 
runs  between  each  enofravinp^.^ 

Reginald  also  speaks  of  the  coffins  themselves 
as  havlnor  an  outer  cover  decorated  with  o^old  and 
precious  stones,  and  fastened  irremovably  to  them 
iDy  long  iron  nails. 

Let  us  now  turn  from  the  coffins  to  their 
contents,  which  are  particularly  interesting  as 
specimens  of  the  artistic  work  and  the  burial  rites 
at  a  time  when  we  have  very  few  evidences  remain- 
ing. The  anonymous  writer  says,  that  having 
raised  the  lid  at  the  bidding  of  the  prior,  the 
brethren  smelt  an  odour  of  the  sweetest  fragrancy. 
They   found    the   body   of  the   Saint   lying   on    its 

1  Op.  cit.  189. 


JO     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

side  In  a  perfect  state,  and  from  the  flexibility  of 
its  joints  representing  a  person  asleep  rather  than 
one  dead.  It  contained,  besides,  the  head  of  ''the 
glorious  king  and  martyr  Oswald,"  and  the  bones 
of  the  confessor  and  priest  Aidan  and  Bishops 
Eadberht,  Eadfrid,  and  Ethelwold,  those  of  the 
Venerable  Bede  (which  were  contained  in  a  small 
linen  sack),  and,  according  to  William  of 
Malmesbury,  "  the  bones  of  King  Ceolwulf,  monk 
and  saint."  ^  These  relics  were  not  in  the  coffin 
originally,  but  had  been  placed  there  in  later  times, 
and  after  the  Danish  invasion,  being  such  as  had 
afterwards  been  rescued  by  Alfred  above  named. 

The  anonymous  writer  says  that  the  two  monks 
who  had  been   deputed  to  remove  the  venerable 
body  from  the   coffin  stood  at  the  head  and  feet, 
and  holding  it  by  those  parts  it  began  to  bend  in 
the  middle  like  a  living  man,  and  to  sink  forwards 
from  its  natural  weight  of  solid  flesh  and  bones.     A 
third    then     ran     up    by    special    command    and 
supported    its    middle    in    his    arms.     They    then 
placed  it  reverently  upon  tapestry  and  other  robes.* 
Having  removed  the  other  relics  from  the  coffin, 
they  again  replaced  the  Saint's  body  in  it.      It  was 
midnight,  and  they  sang  a  Te  Deum  and  psalms  of 
exultation,   and  in   the   morning  reported   all  they 
had    seen    and    done    to    the     Bishop,    who    was 
credulous  about  some  of  the  details.     The  following 

^  Raine,  op  cit.  79.  In  a  Durham  MS.  mentioned  by  Raine  it  is 
said  there  were  also  bones  of  the  hermits  Baiter  and  Billfred  and  of 
Ebbe  and  Elfirge,  and  bones  and  hair  of  St.  Ethelwold  the  priest  who 
succeeded  Cuthberht  as  hermit  at  Fame. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  SAINTS  BODY         71 

night  they  therefore  again  took  out  the  coffin,  and 
again  put  the  body  on  some  robes  and  tapestry  on  the 
pavement  and  proceeded  to  unwrap  the  outer  cover- 
ing, which  was  a  vesture  of  a  costly  kind.  Next 
below  this  was  a  purple  dalmatic,  and  then  a  linen 
robe,  doubdess  a  chasuble.  All  these  swathements 
retained  their  original  freshness.  The  chasuble 
which  the  Saint  had  worn  for  eleven  years  in  his 
grave  was  removed  by  the  brethren  on  this  occasion, 
and  was  afterwards  preserved  in  the  church.  Having 
examined  the  body  carefully,  and  *' ascertained  that 
it  was  a  body  in  a  state  of  incorruption,"  they,  in 
addition  to  the  robes  it  already  wore,  clothed  it  with 
the  most  costly  pall  they  could  find  in  the  church, 
and  over  this  they  placed  a  covering  of  the  purest 
linen.  They  then  replaced  it  in  the  coffin.  The 
other  things  which  they  had  found  with  it  they  also 
replaced,  namely,  an  ivory  comb  and  a  pair  ^of 
forceps,  still  retaining  their  freshness,  and,  as  became 
a  priest,  a  silver  altar,  a  linen  cloth  for  covering 
the  sacramental  elements  and  a  paten.  There  was 
also  a  chalice  —  small  in  size,  but  precious  from 
its  materials  and  workmanship.  Its  lower  part 
represented  a  lion  of  the  purest  gold,  which  bore 
on  its  back  an  onyx  stone  made  hollow  by  the  most 
beautiful  workmanship.  It  was  attached  to  the 
lion  so  that  it  could  easily  be  turned  round  by  the 
hand,  although  it  could  not  be  separated  from  it. 
The  only  relic  found  in  the  coffin,  which  was 
replaced  there,  was  the  head  of  St.  Oswald.-^ 

^  Raine,  op.  cit.  81. 


7  2     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Let  us  now  turn  to  Reginald,  who  gives  some 
further  details.     He  says  that  the  pillow  on  which 
the    body  lay  was    made    of  costly  silk,  and    had 
been  previously  placed  under  the  body.      So  far  as  it 
was  covered  by  it,  it  shone  with  all  the  brightness 
of  a  recent  texture.     But  that  part  of  it  which  had 
been  occupied  by  the  relics  of  the  other  saints  was 
devoured  by  moths  and  reduced  to  dust  and  ashes. 
These  latter  relics  were  placed  in  certain  wooden 
receptacles,  and  were  preserved    elsewhere  in  the 
church  in    a   larger   repository   specially  made  for 
them.     Instead  of  replacing  the  Saint  on  the  floor 
of  the  coffin,  they  made  a  platform  on  four  feet, 
which  they  placed  inside  it,  and  on  it  put  the  body, 
so  that  it  lay  not  more  than  half  down  the  coffin. 
In  regard  to  the  vestures  in  which  he  lay,  Reginald 
says  his    body    was    everywhere    immediately  en- 
veloped with  a  very  thinly  woven  sheet  of  linen, 
being  the  winding-sheet  which  the  Abbess  Verca 
gave    him.       Next    to    this    was    his    priestly   alb, 
with  an  amice  on   his    neck   and  shoulders.     His 
cheeks     and    face    were    covered    with    a    cloth. 
Above  all   these  was  a  purple  face  cloth,    which 
concealed   the    mitre.      He   adds    that    no    similar 
kind  of  cloth  as    this    last  was  made  in  his  time. 
Upon   his    forehead   was   a  fillet    of  gold,    not  of 
woven  work,   '*  but  it  was  externally  covered  with 
gold,"  and  sparkling  with  precious  stones  all  over. 
Above  the  alb  was  a  stole,  the  extremities  of  which 
were  visible  near  his  feet,  and  a  fanon,  described 
by  Archbishop  Eyre  as  a  silk  cloth,  hung  behind 


ST.  CUTHBERIirS  BURIAL  VESTMENTS      73 

the  shoulders  and  tied  round  the  neck,  to  which 
was  attached  a  small  hood  which  covered  the 
back  of  the  head  and  was  worn  under  the  mitre/ 
These  were  his  priestly  vestments.  Over  them 
were  his  episcopal  robes,  consisting  of  a  tunic  and 
dalmatic  of  costly  purple  tinged  with  red  and 
ornamented  in  the  loom. 

Speaking  of  the  dalmatic,  he  says  "  it  still  retained 
the  grace  of  its  original  freshness  and  beauty,  and, 
as  it  were,  crackled  in  the  fingers  of  those  who 
handled  it  on  account  of  the  solidity  of  the  work  and 
the  stiffness  of  the  thread.  In  it  were  interwoven 
figures  as  well  of  birds  as  of  small  animals,  ex- 
tremely minute  in  their  workmanship  and  sub- 
division. To  add  to  its  beauty,  the  robe  was 
variegated  with  frequent  dashes  of  citron  colour,  as 
it  were  in  drops.  The  edge  was  surrounded  by  a 
border  of  a  handsbreadth  in  width  made  of  thread  of 
gold-like  embroidery.  There  was  a  similar  border 
upon  the  extremity  of  each  sleeve  around  the  wrists 
of  the  glorious  bishop,  while  round  the  neck  was  a 
broader  one  covering  the  greater  part  of  both 
shoulders,  as  well  as  hanging  in  front."  "  His 
hands,"  he  says,  "reclined  upon  his  breast,  and 
appeared  to  be  extended  out  with  fingers  towards 
heaven."  In  regard  to  the  chasuble  which  was 
moved  from  the  body  at  this  time,  he  says  "  it  was 
afterwards  kept  in  an  ivory  casket  at  Durham, 
and  many  miracles  were  attributed  to  it.  On 
the    saint's  feet   were  episcopal   shoes  or  sandals, 

^  Op.  cit.  172  and  3  notes. 


74     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

which  were  perforated  in  front  with  numerous  very 
small  holes."  ^ 

Next  to  the  dalmatic,  says  Reginald,  "his  holy 
body  "  was  clothed  with  other  costly  robes  of  silk, 
the  nature  of  which  was  not  clearly  ascertained. 
Above  these  was  a  sheet  nine  cubits  in  length  and 
three  and  a  half  in  breadth,  in  which  the  whole 
mass  of  holy  relics  had  been  swathed.  It  had  a 
fringe  of  linen  thread  of  a  finger's  breadth  on  one 
of  its  edg-es  ;  on  the  sides  and  ends  was  woven  a 
border  of  an  inch  wide,  bearing  upon  it  a  very 
minute  and  projecting  workmanship  fabricated  with 
the  thread  itself,  and  containing  on  its  extremity 
figures  of  birds  and  beasts,  so  that  between  each 
pair  of  them  was  represented  a  branching  tree 
dividing  the  figures.  The  tree  appears  to  be  put- 
ting forth  leaves  on  both  sides.  Under  this,  on  the 
adjacent  compartment,  the  interwoven  figures  of 
animals  again  appeared.  This  sheet  was  removed 
from  the  body  of  the  Saint  at  the  time  of  the  trans- 
lation, and  was  long  afterwards  preserved  in  the 
church,  entire,  on  account  of  the  gifts  daily  given 
to  it  by  the  faithful.^ 

Above  the  sheet  was  still  another  cloth  of  a 
thicker  substance  and  of  a  threefold  texture,  which 
covered  its  whole  surface  and  all  the  relics  beneath 

^  Plummer  says  of  such  funereal  sandals  that,  although  a  Christian 
significance  may  be  given  them,  they  are  probably  derived  from  "  the 
hellshoon  "  with  which  it  was  the  custom  for  the  heathen  to  bind  the 
feet  of  a  corpse  {Gisla  Saga,  Orig.  Isl.^  ii.  208,  where  we  read  "it 
is  customary  to  bind  hellshoon  on  men  on  which  they  may  walk  to 
Valhalla."     Plummer,  ii.  pp.  270  and  271), 

"^  Raine,  op.  cit.  90  and  91. 


CONTENTS  OF  ST.  CUTHBERHTS  COFFIN     75 

it  ;  and  above  it  was  a  third  envelope  saturated  with 
wax,  which  had  covered  the  inner  coffin  of  the  holy 
body  externally  to  exclude  the  dust. 

These  three  sheets  were  taken  away  at  the 
time,  and  instead  of  them  there  were  put  on  the 
body  others  much  more  elegant  and  costly  ;  the 
first  was  of  silk,  thin  and  of  most  delicate  texture. 
The  second  was  costly,  of  incomparable  purple 
cloth  ;  and  the  third,  which  was  the  outer  and  last 
of  all,  was  of  the  finest  linen.^ 

Reginald  repeats  the  list  of  the  otherobjects  found 
in  the  coffin,  as  given  by  the  anonymous  author. 
He  adds  that  the  scissors,  according  to  report,  had 
been  used  to  cut  his  hair.  In  regard  to  the  comb, 
he  says  it  was  perforated  so  that  three  fingers  might 
almost  be  inserted  in  the  hole.  It  was  of  almost 
equal  length  and  breadth,  and  had  acquired  a  ruddy 
tint.^  I  have  been  particular  in  giving  details  of 
these  objects  because  of  the  rarity  of  such  descrip- 
tions relating  to  so  early  a  date,  and  of  their 
intrinsic  interest  to  the  historian  of  art. 

At  length  all  things  were  ready  for  the  trans- 
lation, and  there  was  a  great  flocking  to  Durham 
of  men  of  all  conditions.  One  of  the  abbots  who 
came,  complained  of  the  secret  character  of  the 
late  proceedings,  at  which  the  integrity  of  the 
Saint's  body  was  said  to  have  been  proved  ; 
and  even  suggested  that  the  story  of  the  local 
monks,  who  had  a  special  interest  in  it,  was  a 
fiction.  The  discussion  grew  very  warm  when 
^  Raine,  op.  cit.  91.  ^  lb.  ch.  42. 


7  6     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Ranulf,  Abbot  of  Seez,  afterwards  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  intervened  and  persuaded  the.  monks 
to  have  the  matter  duly  investigated.  Thereupon 
the  prior  led  the  way,  followed  by  the  Abbot  just 
named,  Richard,  Abbot  of  St.  Albans,  Stephen, 
Abbot  of  St.  Mary  at  York,  and  Hugh,  Abbot  of 
St.  German  at  Selby,  all  in  their  albs ;  next  came 
Alexander,  brother  of  the  King  of  Scotland  (after- 
wards King),  and  William,  chaplain  to  the  Bishop 
of  Durham,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Then  followed  forty  monks  and  seculars,  and  lastly 
came  the  brethren  of  the  Church.  After  a  prayer 
the  body  was  brought  into  the  choir,  where  the  coffin 
was  reopened.  The  prior  then  raised  his  hand  and 
forbade,  under  tremendous  penalty,  any  stranger  but 
the  Abbot  of  Seez  touching  the  body  or  anything  con- 
nected with  it,  and  he  told  the  rest  of  them  to  stand 
hard  by  and  to  look  but  not  to  touch.  The  abbot  afore- 
said, with  a  brother  of  the  Church,  unfolded  the  vest- 
ments around  the  venerable  head  (which,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  covered  with  a  cloth  that  was  glued  to  it), 
raised  it  a  little  with  both  his  hands  in  the  sight  of 
all,  and  bending  it  backwards  in  different  directions 
found  it  perfect  in  all  the  joints  of  its  neck,  and 
firmly  attached  to  the  rest  of  the  body.  He  then 
touched  the  ear  and  drew  it  backwards  and  forwards 
in  no  gentle  manner,  and  satisfied  himself  that  the 
body  consisted  of  solid  nerves  and  bones  and  was 
clothed  with  the  softness  of  flesh,  and,  we  are  told, 
took  care  to  ascertain  the  perfect  state  of  the  feet  and 
legs.     He  then  pronounced  it  to  be  as  sound  and 


INSPECTION  OF  ST.  CUTHBERHT'S  REMAINS    yy 

entire  as  when  It  was  forsaken  by  its  soul.  It  will 
be  noted  that  the  Abbot  of  Seez,  a  very  prejudiced 
person,  was,  in  fact,  the  only  witness.  All  things 
being  arranged  as  before,  the  body  of  the  Saint  was 
raised  on  to  the  shoulders  of  a  number  of  bearers, 
who  bore  it  along.  It  was  preceded  by  the  various 
caskets  of  relics  of  the  other  saints,  the  Bishop 
bringing  up  the  rear,  and  was  duly  acclaimed  by  the 
crowd  outside.  When  the  procession  had  gone 
round  the  outside  of  the  church  it  halted  at  the  east 
end,  where  the  Bishop  preached  a  sermon,  which 
Reginald  says  was  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  but 
quite  wore  out  the  patience  of  many  of  the  hearers 
by  its  prolixity.  It  was  apparently  interrupted  by 
a  sudden  downfall  of  rain,  whereupon  the  brethren 
hastily  took  up  the  coffin  and  carried  it  into  the 
church,  when  the  rain  suddenly  ceased.  This 
incident  was  accepted  as  a  proof  that  It  was  not 
pleasing  to  God  that  the  sacred  body  should  remain 
any  longer  in  unholy  ground.^  William  of  Alalmes- 
bury,  in  reporting  the  event,  tells  us  that  the  face-cloth 
clung  so  closely  to  the  face  of  the  Saint  that  the 
Abbot  of  Seez  tried  in  vain  to  separate  It  from  the 
parts  to  which  it  was  attached.  He  goes  on  to  say 
that,  after  the  ceremony  above  described,  all  things 
were  ready  in  the  new  church  for  the  translation  of 
the  body,  namely,  a  choir  of  monks,  an  altar,  and  a 
sepulchre.  The  only  obstacle  was  the  frame  of  timber 
upon  which  the  newly  built  arch  of  the  choir  had 
been  "turned,"  which  it  was  intended  to  remove  by 

^  Raine,  op.  cit.  83-85. 


7  8      GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

degrees.  "  But,  oh,  most  holy  one  "  {i.e.  Cuthberht), 
says  Malmesbury,  "thou  sufferedst  not  the  longing 
desires  of  thy  servants  to  be  further  delayed,  but 
didst  thyself  at  midnight  lay  it  flat  on  the  ground  ! 
for  who  else  could  have  done  so  mighty  a  deed  ?  " 
The  Prior  heard  the  noise  and  ran  to  the  spot,  car- 
ing little  for  the  scaffold  but  sadly  afraid  for  the 
altar  and  pavement,  but  both,  as  well  as  the  wood- 
work, were  saved  from  injury  by  the  Saint. ^ 

Let  us  now  continue  the  story  of  the  shrine. 
Among  the  various  institutions  of  the  Middle  Ages 
a  very  singular  one  was  the  purchasing  of  **  letters 
of  fraternity,"  by  gifts  and  otherwise,  from  other 
communities  in  order  to  secure  their  prayers.  We 
are  told  that  in  1175,  Dufgal,  son  of  Sumerled, 
Stephen  his  chaplain,  and  Adam  of  Stamford 
received  ''the  fraternity,"  i.e.  ''the  brotherhood"  of 
the  Church,  at  the  feet  of  St.  Cuthberht  on  the  vigil 
of  St.  Bartholomew,  and  the  said  Dufgal  offered 
two  gold  rings  to  the  Saint,  and  promised  that  he 
would  annually  pay  the  convent  a  mark  of  silver, 
either  in  pence  or  in  an  equivalent.^ 

The  treasuries  of  churches  and  shrines  were 
too  handy  for  needy  kings  in  the  Middle  Ages 
to  avoid  plundering  them  when  ready  money  was 
so  scarce.  Thus  we  read  that  when  Henry  iii. 
visited  St.  Cuthberht's  shrine  in  1255,  and  while 
he  was  at  his  devotions,  a  courtier  whispered  in  his 

^  Malmesbury,  De  Gest.  Pont.,  lib.  iii.  ch.  135  ;  Raine,  op.   cit. 

93,  94. 

2  MS.  at  Durham,  B,  iv.  24  ;  Raine,  151,  note. 


ST.  CUTHBERHT'S  SHRINE  79 

ear  that  certain  of  his  bishops  had  hidden  much 
treasure  in  St.  Cuthberht's  tomb.  "  The  Kinor 
made  shorte,  and  opening  the  tomb  found  it  to  be 
even  so  ;  whereupon  he  devised  to  borrow  the  same 
lest  they  should  charge  him  with  profanation  of  the 
holy  reliques  ;  but  Paris  {i.e.  Matthew  Paris)  com- 
plaineth  that  they  were  never  half  payd  again."  ^ 

Perhaps  the  most  famous  of  the  relics  connected 
with  the  name  of  Cuthberht  was  his  corporal,  i.e. 
the  napkin  he  used  for  covering  the  sacramental 
elements.  His  anonymous  biographer  and  Regi- 
nald both  tell  us  it  was  placed  with  the  other  objects 
in  the  coffin  at  the  translation  of  1104.^  There  it 
remained  till  1346,  when,  according  to  Sanderson, 
on  the  night  before  the  battle  of  Durham  {i.e.  of 
Neville's  Cross),  the  17th  October  1346,  there 
appeared  to  John  Fosser,  then  Prior  of  the  Abbey 
of  Durham,  a  vision  commanding  him  to  take  ''the 
holy  corporax  cloth "  wherewith  St.  Cuthberht 
covered  the  chalice  when  he  used  to  say  Mass,  and 
to  put  the  same  holy  relique  upon  a  spear-point,  and 
next  morning  to  repair  to  a  place  on  the  west  of 
the  city  of  Durham  called  the  Red  Hills,  and  there 
to  remain  till  the  end  of  the  battle.  The  reporter 
of  this  claims  that  "  the  English  victory  was  due  to 
the  presence  of  the  monk  and  of  the  holy  relic  he 
had  with  him." 

'*  Shortly  after,"  he  adds,  "the  Prior  caused  a 
very  sumptuous  banner  to  be  made  with  pipes  of 

^Lombard's  Top.  Diet.,  86  ;  Raine,  St.  Cuthberht,  230. 
2  Raine,  pp.  81  and  91. 


8o     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

silver,  to  be  put  on  a  staff  five  yards  long,  with  a 
device  to  take   off  and   put  on  the  said   pipes  at 
pleasure,  and  to  be  kept  in  a  chest  in  the  feretory 
when  they  were   taken    down,  which  banner   was 
shewn  and  carried  about  in  the  abbey  on  festival 
and  principal  days.     On  the  height  of  the  upper- 
most pipe  was  a  pretty  cross  of  silver,  and  a  wand 
of  silver,  having  a  fine  wrought  knob  of  silver  on 
either   end,  that    went   over   the   banner   cloth   to 
which  it  was  fastened,  which  wand  was  the  thick- 
ness of  a  man's  finger,  having  at  either  end  a  fine 
silver  bell.     The  wand  was  fastened  by  the  middle 
to  the  banner  staff  under  the  cross.     The  banner 
cloth  was  a  yard  broad  and  five  quarters  deep,  and 
the  bottom  of   it  was   indented   in  five  parts   and 
fringed,  and  made  fast  all  about  it  with  red  silk  and 
gold.     It  was  also  made  of  red  velvet  on  both  sides, 
sumptuously  embroidered  and  wrought  with  flowers 
of  green  silk  and  gold,  and  in  the  midst  thereof  was 
the   said   holy  relic   and  corporax  cloth    enclosed, 
which  corporax  cloth  was  covered  over  with  white 
velvet  half  a  yard  square  in  every  way,  having  a 
cross  of  red  velvet  on  both  sides  over  that   holy 
relique,  most  artificially  compiled  and  framed,  being 
finely  fringed  from  the  edge  and  skirts  with  fringe 
of  red  silk  and  gold  and  three  fine  little  silver  bells 
fastened  to  the  skirts  of  the  said  banner-cloth  like 
unto    sacring    bells,    and    being    so    sumptuously 
finished  was  dedicated  to  holy  St.  Cuthberht,  to  the 
intent  that  for  the  future  it  should  be  carried  to  any 
battle  as  occasion  should  serve.     Whenever  it  was 


ST.  CUTHBERHrs  BANNER  8i 

carried  in  procession  it  was  the  clerk's  office  to 
attend  it,  with  his  surpHce  on,  with  a  fine  red 
painted  staff  having  a  fork  or  cleft  at  the  upper  end 
thereof,  which  cleft  was  lined  with  soft  silk,  having 
down  under  the  silk  to  prevent  bursting  or  bruising 
of  the  pipes  of  the  banner,  which  were  of  silver,  or 
taking  down  or  raising  up  again  by  reason  of  its 
great  weight.  There  were  always  four  men  to  go 
along  with  it,  besides  the  clerk  and  the  man  who 
carried  it.  There  was  also  a  strong  airdle  of  white 
leather,  that  he  who  bore  St.  Cuthberht's  banner 
did  wear  whenever  it  was  carried  abroad.  The 
banner  was  made  fast  to  it  with  two  pieces  of  white 
leather,  and  at  each  end  of  the  two  pieces  a  socket 
of  horn  was  fastened  to  put  the  end  of  the  banner 
staff  into."^ 

The  Bursars'  Roll  for  Durham  Cathedral  under 
the  years  1355-6  contains  an  interesting  entry, 
showing  that  the  banner  accompanied  King  Edward 
the  Third  to  recover  Berwick  from  the  Scots  in  his 
campaign  of  that  year.  It  reads  :  **The  expenses 
of  Sir  William  de  Masham,  '  the  Terrarer,'  towards 
Scotland  with  the  banner  of  St.  Cuthberht,  In  the 
suite  of  our  Lord  the  King,  with  a  pipe  of  wine 
and  a  tent  bought  for  the  same,  ^15,  i6s.  8d."^ 
Again:  "To  expences  of  William  de  Cheker  at 
Newcastle  with  the  banner  of  St.  Cuthberht  to 
be  carried  to  our  Lord  the   Klne."^ 

In  1400-1,  Henry  iv.  marched  against  Scotland, 
and  we  duly  find  an  entry  In  the  account  books  of 

^  Op.  cit.  26,  quoted  by  Raine,  106-108.  ^  lb.  109.  ^  lb. 

VOL.  III. — 6 


8  2     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Durham  :  "  For  a  belt  bought  for  carrying  the 
banner,  and  for  expenses  incurred  twice  at  New- 
castle, and  towards  the  march  with  the  banner  of 
St.  Cuthberht,  by  order  of  the  Lord  and  King  and 
the  Prior,  8s.  od."^ 

Charges  continue  to  appear  for  mending  the 
banner  and  for  carrying  it,  and  in  1522  it  was 
a(>-ain  in  the  field  against  Scotland  to  sustain  the 
Eno-lish  at  Flodden.  Nor  was  this  its  last 
appearance.  It  was  to  lead  a  serried  host  once 
more.  This  was  in  the  great  rebellion  of  the 
Percies  and  Nevilles  against  Henry  viii.  in  defence 
of  the  great  northern  abbeys  in  1536,  known  as  the 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace.^ 

Sanderson  tells  us  the  final  doom  of  the  banner. 
He  says  that  "after  the  dissolution  of  the  abbey  it 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Dean  Whittingham,  whose 
wife,  being  a  Frenchwoman  (as  was  reported  by 
credible  eye-witnesses),  did  most  despitefully  burn 
the  robe  in  the  fire." 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  history  of  St. 
Cuthberht's  shrine.  In  the  year  1372,  John,  Lord 
Neville  of  Raby,  spent  ^200  in  building  a  fine 
feretory  of  marble  and  alabaster  on  which  to  plant 
the  shrine  of  St.  Cuthberht.  This  work  was 
executed  in  London  and  taken  to  Newcastle  by  sea 
at  the  cost  of  the  donor,  and  thence  removed  to 
Durham  at  the  expense  of  the  Church.  The  work, 
together  with  the  fine  screen  presented  by  the  same 
nobleman,  was  finished  in  1380,  when  the  altar  was 
*  Raine,  137.      ^  See  Raine's  Hexha^n^  Appendix  CXXXVI.  note  i. 


The  Remains  of  iiie  Feketokv  and  Tomu  of 

Sr.    CUTHBERHT. 


[/'./.  Ill.,faci)isp.  32. 


ST.  CUTHBERHT'S  FERETORY  83 

solemnly  dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  St.  Oswald  the 
Martyr,  and  St.  Cuthberht.^  A  minute  description 
of  the  feretory  as  it  existed  at  the  Dissolution  is 
extant.  ''It  was  2>7  ^^ct  long  and  23  broad,  and 
was  of  most  curious  workmanship  of  fine  and  costly 
green  marble,  all  lined  and  gilt  with  'gold,  having 
four  seats  in  places  convenient  underneath  for 
pilgrims  or  lame  men  '  sitting  '  on  their  knees,  to 
lean  and  rest  on  in  the  time  of  their  offerings  and 
prayers.  It  was  deemed  one  of  the  most  sumptuous 
monuments  in  all  England,  so  great  were  the 
offerings  and  jewels  bestowed  on  it.  At  the  end  of 
the  shrine,  and  adjoining  it,  was  a  little  altar  where 
mass  was  said  only  on  the  great  and  holy  feast  of 
St.  Cuthberht's  day  in  Lent,  at  which  the  Prior  and 
the  whole  convent  did  keep  open  household  in  the 
Frater-house.^     They  did  dine  together  on  that  day, 

*Raine,  op.  cit.  no. 

^  It  will  be  profitable  to  set  out  the  supplies  prepared  by  the 
Cellarer  of  Durham  for  the  week's  festivities  on  the  occasion  of 
St.  Cuthberht's  great  week,  which  is  in  notable  contrast  with  the 
austerities  of  an  earlier  day.  In  an  undated  Cellarer's  Roll  at 
Durham  we  read  : — 

"  The  week  of  the  feast  of  St.  Cuthberht  and  the  Nativity  of  the 
Virgin,  a  horse-load  of  fish  from  Sunderland,  2od. ;  260  salt  herrings, 
2/7  ;  twenty  cod  fish  {dogdraves),  1/7  ;  six  oxen  and  a  half,  55/-  ; 
twenty-one  sheep,  35/10 ;  three  kids,  7/2  ;  twelve  pork  pigs,  5/4  ; 
seven  dozen  and  three  chickens,  yJ7  ;  four  dozen  and  a  half  pigeons, 
i8d. ;  other  fowl  {volatil),  3/1  ;  cows'  feet,  6d.  ;  fish,  8/5  ;  780  eggs, 
5/1  ;  five  pounds  of  pepper,  6/8  ;  half  a  pound  of  saffron,  7/6  ;  six 
pounds  of  figs  ;  six  pounds  of  raisins  {racemi  7nagni),  I2d.  ;  a  quarter 
of  cloves  {garioptot)  ;  a  quarter  of  mace  {de  niaces\  i2d.  ;  four  flagons 
of  oil,  6/8  ;  two  pounds  of  currants  {racemi  de  cur7'ans\  lod. ;  two 
flagons  of  honey,  2/-;  six  pounds  of  almonds,  i8d.  ;  one  pound  of 
ginger,  I2d." 

In  another  document  dated  1312-1315,  and  also  referring  to 
St.  Cuthberht's  feast,  we  find  : — 


84     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

and  no  other,  and  at  that  feast  and  certain  other 
festival  days  they  were  accustomed  to  draw  up  the 
cover  of  St.  Cuthberht's  shrine.  Being  of  wains- 
cot a  cord  was  fastened  to  a  loop  of  iron  at  each 
corner,  which  cords  were  all  fastened  together  at 
the  ends  over  the  midst  of  the  cover,  and  a  strong 
rope  was  fastened  to  the  loops  and  bindings  of  the 
cords,  which  ran  up  and  down  in  a  pulley  under  the 
vault  over  St.  Cuthberht's  feretory  for  the  drawing 
up  of  Its  cover.  To  this  rope  were  also  fastened 
six  fine  round  silver  bells,  which  made  such  a 
goodly  sound  that  it  stirred  all  the  people's  hearts 
In  the  church.  And  the  said  cover  was  very  finely 
and  artificially  gilded,  and  on  each  side  of  It  were 
joined  four  living  Images  curiously  wrought,  and 
on  the  east    end  was    painted  the  picture    of  our 

"  Milk,  3/4^  ;  eight  horse-load  of  fish,  28/-  ;  4500  white  herrings, 
26/10^  ;  playc  {i.e.  plaice),  Sperlings,  soles,  1 1/9  ;  three  salmon  with  six 
truyts  salm  {i.e.  salmon  trout),  3/-  ;  an  ox  and  three  quarters,  12/-  ;  327 
geese,  73s.  i6d. ;  302  chickens,  40s.  3d.  ;  thirty-eight  chickens,  3/5  ; 
i8(?)  capons  {altit)^  5/6  ;  thirteen  porkers,  5/-  ;  six  dozen  of  plovers, 
4/2  ;  eight  dozen  of  curlews,  2/-  ;  forty  ducks,  6/-  ;  three  stone  of  lard, 
6/-  ;  3000  eggs,  20/-." 

A  much  larger  provision  was  made  for  the  week's  feasting  about 
the  same  time,  when  Prior  Burdon  was  installed,  when  the  Bishop,  the 
Priors  of  the  Cells,  and  the  Justices  of  the  Palatinate  were  present  : — 

"  P'orty  loads  of  white  fish,  ^8.  i.  i  ;  11,400  herrings,  ^3.  5.  o  ; 
191  salmon  and  thirty  trouts  {truytes\  £'].  12.  3  ;  sixty-six  porkers, 
;^i.  5.  8  ;  552  chickens  and  sixteen  (?)  capons  {altil\  £2.  19.  o;  14,500 
eggs,  £^.  3.  5  ;  milk,  3/-  ;  milk  and  fresh-water  fish,  4/8  ;  vinegar 
{vino  ac.\  and  milk  fodder  {prebenda\  and  milk,  3/9 ;  congers,  7/-  ; 
bacon  and  veal,  15/1  ;  zA  7/-;  a  stone  of  lard,  I5d. ;  dripping, 
{oxitus)^  mutton  suet,  2/2  ;  turbut  and  playc,  25/6  ;  sixteen  lampreys, 
18/-." 

In  another  similar  entry  we  have  mention,  inier  alia.,  of  rice  {rys)^ 
honey,  almonds,  pepper,  and  cinnamon  (Raine,  St.  Cuthberht,  pp.  158, 
1 59,  notes). 


ST.  CUTHBERHT'S  FERETORY  85 

Saviour  sitting  upon  the  rainbow  to  give  judgment, 
very  artificially  and  lively  to  behold  ;   and  at    the 
west  end  was  the  picture  of  our  Lady  with  Christ  on 
her  knee  ;  and  on  the  height  of  the  said  cover  from 
end  to  end  was  a  most  fine  *  bratishing '  of  carved 
work,    cut    throughout    with    dragons,    fowls,    and 
beasts,  most  artificially  wrought,  and  the  inside  of 
the  covering:  was  all  varnished  and  coloured  with  a 
most  fine  sanguine  colour,  and  within  the  same  on 
the  north  and  south  side  were  almeries  of  wainscot 
finely   painted    with    little    images  for  the  reliques 
belonging  to  St.   Cuthberht  to  lie  in,  and  when  the 
shrine  was  drawn,  i.e.  opened,  these  almeries  were 
opened  so  that  every  one  might  see  the  reliques 
with  the  jewels  and  all  the  other  reliques  which  were 
hung  on  irons  all  round  the  feretory,  and  which  were 
accounted  the  most  sumptuous  and  richest  jewels 
in  all   this  land,   with    the  beautifullest  of  the  fine 
little  images  that  stood  in  the  French  pierre  (the 
altar  screen  within  the  feretory),  which  had    been 
given  by  kings,  queens,  and  other  great  estates. 

"  Within  the  feretory  were  many  fine  little 
pictures  of  several  saints  of  imagery  work  (i.e. 
carved  work),  all  being  of  alabaster,  set  in  the  French 
pierre,  all  being  curiously  engraved  and  gilt,  and  the 
Neville's  cross  and  bull's  head  (i.e.  the  arms  of  the 
family)  set  upon  the  height. 

'*  At  the  east  end  of  the  feretory  were  very  fine 
candlesticks  of  iron,  like  unto  sockets,  which  had 
lights  set  in  them  before  day,  that  every  monk 
might  have  the  more  light  to  see  or  read  in  their 


8  6     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

books  at  the  nine  altars  when  they  said  Mass. 
Somewhere  within  the  feretory  was  the  box  for 
holding  the  offerings  of  the  faithful."^ 

One  duty  of  the  keeper  of  the  feretory  when  any 
man  or  woman  was  disposed  to  offer  prayers  or  some 
aift  at  the  shrine,  was  that  ''when  they  had  said 
their  prayers  and  offered  anything,  if  it  were  gold, 
silver,  or  jewels,  to  instantly  hang  it  on  the  shrine, 
and  if  it  were  some  curious  object,  such  as  a 
unicorn  s  horn  {i.e.  a  narwhal's  tooth)  or  the  tusk 
of  an  elephant  or  such  like,  to  put  it  within  the 
feretory  north  of  the  shrine."^ 

In    1383,   Richard  de   Segbrok  was  appointed 
shrine-keeper,  and  drew  up  a  list  of  the  relics  which 
were   preserved   in    the    feretory   under   his    care. 
Among   the   entries    we   find :    An   image   of   St. 
Cuthberht,  the  gift  of  William   the  Bishop  ;   in  a 
small  enamelled  coffer  the  cope  of  St.  Cuthberht, 
in  which  he  lay  in   the  ground   for  eleven  years  ; 
a   small  coffer  of  ivory  containing  a  robe  of  St. 
Cuthberht  ornamented  with   tassels  ;    a  particle  of 
the  cloth  which  St.  Ebba  gave  to  St.  Cuthberht,  in 
which  he  lay  for  four  hundred  and  eighteen  years 
and  five  months,  and    a   part    of   the  chasuble   in 
which  he  lay  for  eleven  years,  in  a  corporax  case 
(this  no  doubt    once  contained  the  corporal  after- 
wards inserted  in  St.  Cuthberht's  banner,  as  above 
described)  protected  by  glass  {glaucS  stepata) ;   an 
ivory  casket  ornamented  with  gold  and  silver  con- 

^  Sanderson,  quoted  by  Raine,  111-113. 
2  lb.  p.  114. 


RELICS  KEPT  IN  CUTHBERHT'S  FERETORY  87 

taining  the  gloves  of  St.  Cuthberht  (the  casket 
was  the  gift  of  Dom.  Richard  de  Birtley,  monk  of 
Durham) ;  the  book  of  St.  Cuthberht  with  the  copy 
of  the  EvangeHsts  ;  a  cloth  dipped  in  wax  which  had 
enveloped  the  body  of  St.  Cuthberht  in  his  grave, 
and  one  of  his  vestments  ;  two  sandals  in  a  case  of 
black  leather ;  ''  in  a  green  sheet  was  a  winding- 
sheet  of  a  double  texture,  which  had  enveloped 
the  body  of  St.  Cuthberht  in  his  grave — Elfled^  the 
Abbess  had  wrapped  him  up  in  it."  All  these  were 
apparently  at  one  time  or  another  in  the  Saint's 
coffin,  and  were  all,  with  the  exception  of  the  books, 
destroyed  at  the  Reformation. 

In  addition  to  the  income  secured  by  the  church 
at  Durham  itself  by  the  exhibition  of  the  Saint  and 
his  relics  there,  a  selection  of  them  was  used  for 
the  same  purpose  by  monks  who  perambulated  the 
country  to  make  separate  collections  for  various 
Church  and  charitable  purposes.  The  practice  was 
revived  in  14 10.  On  one  of  these  occasions 
William  de  Hexham  took  with  him  a  cross  of 
silver  gilt  with  an  image  of  the  Virgin  inside  it, 
and  a  sandal  which  St.  Cuthberht  had  worn  during 
divine  service.^  On  another  occasion,  when  the 
great  tower  of  Durham  had  been  injured  by 
lightning,  John  Walkere,  a  monk,  was  sent  round 
with  indulgences,  and  took  a  fragment  of  the  white 
cloth  in  which  the  Saint's  body  had  been  swathed 
four  hundred  years.^ 

^  A  mistake  of  Segbrok  for  Verca.  ^  Raine,  139. 

^  lb.  149. 


8  8  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Bishop  Pudsey  was  a  great  patron  of  these  elee- 
mosynary missions.  It  is  reported  that  in  his  time 
miracles  were  performed  by  the  Saint's  relics  in 
Scotland,  and  notably  at  Dunfermline,  where  St. 
Margaret,  a  great  devotee  of  the  Saint,  was  buried, 
and  where  they  reaped  a  large  harvest.  The  Queen 
herself  had  bequeathed  to  the  shrine  a  copy  of  the 
Gospels  in  silver  covers,  a  robe  of  fair  linen,  and 
a  cross  decorated  with  pearls  and  precious  stones.-"- 

The  shrine  of  our  Saint  was  endowed  with  a 
large  number  of  other  vestments  and  robes,  of 
which  a  list  exists.^  Among  them,  probably  the 
most  valued  was  the  "  Parliament  robe"  of  Rich- 
ard II.  ''  It  was  made  of  blue  velvet,  wrought  with 
great  lions  of  pure  gold,  '  an  exceedingly  rich 
cope.'"^  A  more  curious  possession  consisted  of 
two  pairs  of  pillows,  of  which  one  is  described  as 
of  Cuthberht  downe  ^  [i.e.  of  the  down  of  the  eyder 
duck).  Another  item  consists  of  two  poles  for 
carrying  the  banner  of  St.  Cuthberht  in  procession 
and  in  times  of  war,  with  a  cover  of  hide  containing 
the  said  banner.^ 

1  Raine,  91,  notes.  According  to  Reginald  of  Durham,  on  this 
occasion  St.  Cuthberht's  remains  preceded  those  of  the  Queen, 
ahhough  she  was  so  greatly  reverenced  all  over  Scotland  {id. 
ch.  98).  He,  in  fact,  had  precedence  of  all  English  saints  in 
early  times.  The  same  writer  tells  us  how  on  one  occasion, 
to  test  the  matter,  three  large  candles  were  labelled  with  his 
name  and  those  of  his  early  rivals,  St.  Edmund  of  Bury  and 
St.  yEthelfleda,  and  the  candle  which  burnt  the  fastest  was  St. 
Cuthberht's,  this  having  been  accepted  as  a  test  of  their  potency. 
On  another  occasion  when  his  merits  were  put  in  competition  with 
St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  and  St.  Edmund,  the  matter  was  tested  by 
tossing  a  coin. 

2  lb.  142.  »  lb.  135,  note.  *  lb.  142.  «  lb.  143. 


TREASURES  OF  ST.  CUTHBERHT'S  SHRINE      89 

Among  the  later  patrons  of  the  shrine  were 
the  hapless  King,  Henry  vi.  and  his  vigorous  queen. 
They  visited  it  in  September  1448,  and  we  read  that 
on  the  feast  of  St.  Michael  the  Archangel  the  King 
attended  in  person  the  first  vespers,  the  procession, 
the  mass,  and  the  second  vespers,  in  the  cathedral.^ 
In  the  succeeding  wars  the  Lancastrian  cause  was 
handsomely  supported  by  the  Prior  and  Convent 
of  Durham.^ 

The  last  reputed  miracle  performed  by  St. 
Cuthberht  at  his  shrine  took  place  in  July  1502, 
while  Margaret,  the  daughter  of  Henry  vii.,  stayed 
at  Durham  on  her  way  to  be  married  to  the  Scottish 
King,  when  one  of  her  suite  who  had  been  ill  for 
many  years  was  restored  to  good  health.^ 

His  "pyx,"  as  it  was  customary  to  call  the 
collecting-box  at  his  shrine,  which  had  received 
a  long  succession  of  alms,  of  which  the  accounts 
are  fully  preserved,  was  first  reported  to  be  empty 
in  15 13-14,  surely  a  rather  pathetic  proof  that 
times  were  changing. 

In  his  Remains  Camden  has  a  paragraph  show- 
ing that  the  merits  of  the  Saint  were  beinof  there 
doubted  even  by  the  orthodox.  The  story  is  amusing. 
''  Not  many  years  ago,"  he  says,  **a  French  Bishop 
returninof  out  of  Scotland  and  cominof  to  the  church 
of  Durham  and  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Cuthberht, 
kneeled  down,  and  after  his  devotions  offered  a 
bauby  {sic\  saying,  *  Sancte  Cuthberte,  si  sanctus  sis, 
ora  pro  77te '  (Saint  Cuthberht,  if  thou  beest  a  saint, 

1  Raine,  159.  2  7^^  162-3.  ^  lb.  165. 


90     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

pray  for  me),  but  afterwards  being  brought  to  the 
tomb  of  Bede,  where  he  also  said  his  orisons,  he 
offered  a  French  crown,  with  this  akeration : 
'  Sancta  Beda,  quia  sanctus  es,  ora  pro  me'  (Saint 
Bede,  since  thou  art  a  saint,  pray  for  me)."^ 

The  shrine  and  the  feretory  were  not  the  only 
notable  monuments  of  the  Saint  at  Durham.  We 
are  told  that  when  he  was  placed  in  his  new 
resting-place  there  was  made  in  his  honour  a  large 
and  curious  image  representing  him  **  finely  pictured 
with  beautiful  gilding  and  painting  in  the  form  he 
was  wont  to  say  Mass,  with  his  mitre  on  his  head, 
a  crozier  staff  in  his  hand,  and  his  vestments 
curiously  engraved,  which  was  placed  upon  the 
tombstone  as  soon  as  his  body  was  enshrined,  and 
round  the  same  were  set  up  wooden  '  stanchels,'  so 
close  that  a  man  could  not  put  his  hand  between 
them  and  could  only  look  through.  It  was  covered 
with  lead,  not  unlike  a  chapel."  This  precious  and 
harmless  monument  was  ruthlessly  destroyed  by 
Dean  Whittingham,  as  were  many  other  ancient 
treasures,  ''  being  unwilling,"  says  the  reporter,  "  that 
any  monument  erected  in  memory  of  the  holy  St. 
Cuthberht,  a  person  sent  hither  by  the  will  of 
Almighty  God  to  be  the  occasion  of  building  this 
monastical  church  and  house,  or  of  others  formerly 
famous  in  the  Church,  or  benefactors  to  it,  as  the 
priors,  his  predecessors,  had  been,  and  from  whom 
he  and  his  successors  derived  the  conveniences  and 
comforts  of  life,  should  remain  undefaced  !  "  ^ 

*  Raine,  i68.  ^  Sanderson,  in  Raine,  74,  note. 


NOTABLE  MONUMENTS  OF  ST.  CUTHBERHT     9 1 

Dr.  Bright  says  that  a  curious  plctorlcal  repre- 
sentation of  the  popular  stories  about  St.  Cuthberht 
may  be  found  behind  the  northern  stalls  of  Carlisle 
cathedral,  with  labels  in  English.  One  scene  exhibits 
him  as  forbidding  "layks  {i.e.  games)  and  plays,  as 
St.  Bede  in  his  story  says."  In  another  we  read  : 
"  Her  saw  he  Aydan's  sowl  up-go,  To  hevyn  blyss 
w*  ancrels  two."     In  a  third  we  have  :  "  Her  Bosile 

o 

teld  hym  y'  he  must  de,  And  after  y'  he  (bishop) 
suld  be."  In  the  death  scene  Cuthberht  rests,  with 
hands  clasped,  in  the  arms  of  an  attendant  (Herefrid), 
while  another  monk  kneels  in  front  of  him.  "  When 
bishop  two  yerys  he  had  beyn,  on  Fame  he  died 
both  holy  and  clene."  ^  These  labels  offer  us  a  very 
reliable  specimen  of  the  early  dialect  of  Cumberland. 
It  is  not  wonderful  that  the  Saint  who  had 
brought  so  much  profit  to  Durham  should  have  been 
very  specially  recorded  in  other  monuments.  The 
middle  one  of  the  nine  altars  there  was  dedicated 
to  St.  Cuthberht  and  to  St.  Bede.  Many  of  the 
windows  in  the  great  church  were  painted  with 
stories  from  his  life  or  with  his  miracles.  These 
are  almost  entirely  destroyed.  On  the  other  hand, 
we  still  have  at  York  one  of  the  finest  specimens 
known  of  fifteenth-century  glass,  which,  notwith- 
standinor  that  it  has  suffered  damage  in  several 
removals  for  the  purpose  of  saving  it  from  de- 
struction, and  still  more  from  repairs,  remains  a 
glorious  monument  of  the  skill  and  taste  of  the 
English    glass     painters.        This    is    the    famous 

*  Op.  cit.  499. 


9  2  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Cuthberht  window  in  York  Minster,  where  it 
almost  fills  the  south  end  of  the  eastern  transept. 
It  contains  eighty-five  panels  devoted  to  the  various 
incidents  of  the  Saint's  life,  and  has  been  described  in 
detail  in  a  masterly  monograph  by  my  learned  friend 
Canon  Fowler,  F.S.A.,  in  \ki^  Journal  of  the  York- 
shire Arch.  Society,  iv.  249-368.  Describing  the 
glass,  he  says :  "Nothing  can  surpass  the  rich  gemlike 
effect  of,  for  instance,  the  little  pot-metal  sparkling 
ruby  flowers  set  in  the  midst  of  the  clumps  of  green 
or  yellow  leafage.  Such  details  point  to  a  period 
when  art  was  naturalised,  and  the  poetry  of  colour 
perceived  intuitively."^  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
scenes  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  Saint's  life  in  the 
window  are  taken  from  the  mythical  Irish  Saga. 
He  was  also  represented  as  the  companion  of  St. 
Oswald  in  a  fine  alabaster  statue  in  the  altar  screen 
at  Durham.  Another  image  of  him  was  in  the  screen 
between  the  nave  and  chancel.  A  great  figure  in 
stone,  holding  his  crozier  in  one  hand  and  St. 
Oswald's  head  in  the  other,  now  much  mutilated 
and  removed  within  the  feretory,  was  in  one  of  the 
external  canopies  of  the  central  tower. 

The  part  taken  by  the  brotherhood  of  Durham 
in  the  famous  rebellion  known  as  the  Pilgrimage 
of  Grace  naturally  brought  upon  it  a  very  special 
vengeance  from  the  authorities,  and  we  read  how  the 
shrine  of  St.  Cuthberht  was  then  cruelly  "defaced." 

At  the  visitation  held  at  Durham,  Sanderson 
says    that    the    Commissioners    Lee,    Henley,   and 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  368. 


OTHER  MONUMExNTS  OF  ST.  CUTHBERHT     93 

Blithman  found  many  valuable  and  goodly  jewels, 
especially  one  precious  stone,  which  by  the  valua- 
tion of  the  visitors  and  their  lapidaries  was  of 
sufficient  value  to  redeem  a  prince.  "After  the 
spoil  of  his  ornaments  and  jewels,"  he  says,  "they 
approached  near  to  his  body,  expecting  nothing  but 
dust  and  ashes,  but  perceiving  the  chest  he  lay  in 
was  strongly  bound  with  iron,  the  goldsmith,  with 
a  smith's  great  forge-hammer,  broke  it  open,  when 
they  found  him  whole,  uncorrupt,  with  his  face, 
hands,  and  his  beard  as  of  a  fortnight's  growth,  and 
all  the  vestments  about  him  as  he  was  accustomed  to 
say  Mass,  and  his  '  metwand '  of  gold  lying  by  him. 
When  the  goldsmith  perceived  that  he  had  broken 
one  of  his  legs  in  breaking  open  the  chest,  he  was 
sore  troubled  at  it  and  cried,  whereupon  Dr.  Henley 
hearing  it,  called  to  him  and  bade  him  cast  down 
the  bones ;  the  other  answered  he  could  not  get 
them  apart,  since  the  sinews  and  skin  held  them 
together,  so  that  they  would  not  separate.  Then 
Dr.  Henley  examined  him  (i.e.  the  Saint)  and 
found  he  was  whole,  and  told  them  to  take  It  down. 
Whereupon  the  visitors  had  him  carried  into  the 
revestry  till  the  King's  pleasure  concerning  him 
was  further  known,  and  on  the  receipt  thereof  the 
prior  and  monks  buried  him  In  the  ground  under 
the  place  where  his  shrine  had  been,  and  which  is 
still  marked  by  a  large  blue  stone,  behind  the  altar. 
In  the  pavement  near  it  are  some  grooves  said  to 
have  been  made  by  the  knees  of  the  pilgrims.  It 
was  therefore  had  in  greater  regard  than  the  remains 


94     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

of  St.  Edmund,  St.  Thomas,  and  others,  which  were 
all  burnt." 

Harpsfield,  Archdeacon  of  Canterbury  in  Queen 
Mary's  reign,  describing  the  same  occurrence, 
tells  us  how  Cuthberht's  wooden  coffin,  which 
was  cased  in  white  marble,  was  broken,  and  his 
body  was  by  orders  of  Bishop  Tunstall  put  in 
a  grave  at  the  very  spot  where  the  shrine  had 
been. 

Mr.  Raine,  although  very  strongly  prejudiced 
against  the  old  order  of  things,  speaks  pathetically 
of  the  ruthless  destruction  of  the  priory  (so  closely 
connected  with  our  Saint),  and  her  children.  ''She 
was  bent  down  to  the  ground,"  he  says,  "like  a 
second  Niobe  bereft  of  her  offspring.  Her  daughter 
cells  of  Holy  Island,  Fame,  Jarrow,  Wearmouth, 
Finchale,  Lythum,  and  Stamford,  and  her  college 
in  Oxford,  had  all  been  annihilated  by  the  Act 
27th  Henry  viii.,  1536.  She  had,  like  a  full-grown 
oak  upon  the  summit  of  a  hill,  seen  the  axe  of 
innovation  lay  flat  one  green  tree  after  another 
beneath  her  with  an  uninjured  edge,  and  she  must 
daily  and  hourly  have  anticipated  the  levelling  of 
that  same  unblunted  axe  against  her  own  dry  root. 
She  had  endured  five  hundred  years,  and  if  eight 
stately  trees  (densissima  silva)  which  grew  under 
her  protecting  shade  had  been  cut  away,  she,  the 
mother,  standing  as  she  was,  unimpaired  and  stretch- 
ing out  her  branches  from  side  to  side,  must  have 
known  she  was  to  fall  at  no  distant  period."^     Her 

"^Op,  cit,  172,  173. 


:l!J!!i  '■:"'''i:itn«"  :  ■xnliiM^i.     .mi  <.■■:.- >'f~  ■ 

Details  of  St.  Cuthrerht's  Coffin. 


[  Fo/.  III. ,  facing  p.  94. 


DEFACEMENT  OF  CUTHBERIIT'S  MON  UMENT    9  5 

fate,  indeed,  came  four  years  later,  with  that  unspar- 
ing hurricane  by  which  : 

"Green  leaves,  with  yellow  mixed,  were  torn  away, 
And  goodly  fruitage  with  the  mother  spray." 

It  was  not  the  shrine  only  which  was  largely 
destroyed,  but  the  other  memorials  of  the  Saint 
also. 

Nor  was  it  till  about  three  centuries  had  passed 
away  that  the  grave  of  the  Saint  was  again  disturbed. 
This  was  on  27th  May  1827,  when  many  of  the 
more  interesting  remains  were  removed  to  the 
library  at  Durham,  where  they  are  now  kept. 

When  the  cover  of  Frosterly  marble,  8  feet 
10  inches  by  4  feet  3  inches,  which  had  been 
placed  there  in  1542,  was  then  removed,  it  dis- 
closed a  stone  grave  made  of  freestone.  At  the 
bottom  of  this  was  a  large  high  coffin  of  oak  in 
great  decay,  not  shaped,  as  usual,  with  projecting 
shoulders,  but  in  the  form  of  a  parallelogram.  It 
had  been  made  of  oak  planks  one  inch  and  three- 
quarters  in  thickness,  and  had  been  ornamented  with 
a  *'  mitred "  moulding,  with  which  exception  its 
bottom,  lid  and  sides  were  plain  ;  rods  of  iron,  half 
an  inch  in  diameter,  had  been  inserted  at  proper 
distances  in  a  perpendicular  hole  made  down  the 
middle  of  the  plank.  There  were  three  such  rods, 
which  were  meant  to  strengthen  it,  beside  which 
were  three  large  rings  on  each  side,  riveted  to  the 
coffin  by  four  screw-nails  to  each.  The  lid  was 
nearly  entire,  but  from  the  dampness  of  the  grave 


g6     GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

was  shrunken  like  a  scroll  of  shrivelled  parchment. 
The  mouldings  were  all  loose.  Otherwise,  the  rest 
of  the  coffin  was  in  fragments.  Inside  it  were  the 
remains  of  another  in  a  still  more  decayed  condition, 
and  here  and  there  were  still  clinging  to  it  fragments 
of  the  envelope,  which  Mr.  Raine  thinks  was  origin- 
ally made  of  skin. 

These  fraements  of  the  inner  coffin  and  its 
ornaments  are  very  interesting  from  the  extreme 
rarity  of  any  similar  remains  of  that  date,  and  a  few 
lines  may  be  devoted  to  them.  The  most  perfect 
fragment,  representing  the  upper  part  of  the  figure  of 
St.  John,  doubtless  formed  one  of  a  series  of  similar 
figures  which  were  cut  on  the  sides  and  ends  of  the 
coffin.  The  incised  lines  are  about  an  eighth  of  an 
inch  in  width  and  depth,  and  have  an  angular  section. 
The  figures  have  mostly  a  nimbus,  their  right  hand 
is  generally  elevated  and  laid  upon  the  breast,  with 
the  first  two  fingers  extended  as  if  giving  the  bene- 
diction, and  the  left  hand,  covered  by  a  part  of  the 
robe,  supports  a  book,  probably  intended  to  re- 
present the  New  Testament.  The  figure  has  the 
inscription  iohannis  {sic)  by  its  side  ;  on  the  other 
side,  stretching  over  the  edge  of  the  wood, 
are  the  letters  kus,  probably  the  last  letters 
of  Markus — St.  Mark — of  whose  figure  no  trace 
remains.  There  is  also  the  lower  part  of  a  figure 
of  St.  Luke,  with  the  inscription  lucas,  and  im- 
mediately beneath  it  a  bull  with  a  nimbus  round 
its  head.  There  are  others  of  St.  Thomas  (with 
his  name),  St.  Peter  (holding  the  keys  in  his  right 


\§!lii;il»i:''l:l|l!|l|lllOi'i«lllllliyii;iilllll!!lllllilllllipi^^ 


i'li'Miii;;;!' 


Details  or  St.  Cuthbkrht's  Coffin. 


[I'o/.  I  If.,  facing  p.  96. 


CARVINGS  ON  CUTHBERHT'S  INNER  COFFIN      97 

hand),  St.  Andrew,  St.  Matthew,  St.  Michael, 
St.  Paul  (a  bearded  figure  with  the  letters  pa),  a 
fragment  of  a  figure  inscribed  kar,  a  fragment  of 
another  figure  representing  the  Saviour,  as  appears 
from  a  broken  inscription  in  Runic  letters  repre- 
senting a  contraction  of  leszis  Sa?ichcs. 

The  figures  on  the  lid  and  bottom  are  of  larger 
size  ;  only  small  fragments  remain  of  them.  "  I 
have  before  me,"  says  Mr.  Raine,  "tracings  of  the 
heads  of  these  four  figures,  some  of  them  with 
wings,  the  face  of  the  largest  of  which  is  five  inches 
long ;  another,  of  almost  the  same  size,  holds  a 
sceptre,  and  a  mutilated  inscription  beginning  with 
scs  inclines  one  to  believe  it  a  representation  of  St. 
Oswald  ;  and  a  third,  inscribed  iac,  designates  pro- 
bably St.  James.  Of  the  fourth,  only  the  face  remains. 
Large  fragments  with  representations  of  drapery  exist 
which  evidently  belonged  to  the  heads  just  named. 

On  a  piece  of  the  lower  end  of  the  lid  is  a  short- 
winged  figure,  the  ''  label  "  to  which  is  worn  away. 
There  are  other  curious  fragments,  such  as  a  well- 
carved  figure  of  the  Virgin  and  Child,  the  two  fore  feet 
of  a  lion,  the  head  and  neck  of  an  eagle  in  a  nimbus, 
and  on  a  small  fragment  of  wood  the  letters  pus,  evi- 
dently the  latter  part  of  episcopus,  probably  attached 
to  a  figure  of  St.  Cuthberht  which  has  been  lost. 

Mr.  Raine  calls  attention  to  the  resemblance  of  the 
letters  in  the  inscriptions  just  named  to  the  more 
simple  of  the  capitals  in  St.  Cuthberht's  Gospels,^ 
as   also    to    the    capitals   of  another    MS.    of    the 

*  Vide  infra. 
VOL.  III. — 7 


9  8  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

same  date  at  Durham/  on  which  Johannis  is  so 
used  as  the  nominative  case  of  the  EvangeHst's 
name,  instead  of  Johannes.^ 

Some  interesting  relics  of  the  Saint  were  found 
in  his  coffin  when  it  was  opened.  Most  of  these  are 
now  in  the  Hbrary  of  Durham  Cathedral.  For  the 
most  part,  if  not  altogether,  the  vestments,  however, 
belong  to  a  later  time.  The  original  ones  were 
no  doubt  too  humble  and  homely  to  suit  the  position 
after  the  shrine  became  very  rich.  Among  the  sub- 
stituted pieces  which  still  remain  at  Durham  are 
some  notable  specimens  of  the  needlework  and 
embroidery  of  a  later  date,  namely,  the  stole  and 
maniple  embroidered  in  the  tenth  century  for 
Bishop  Frithestan  of  Winchester,  by  Queen  riffled 
(sic),  as  is  proved  by  the  embroidered  inscription 
on  them.^  There  is  also  a  robe  of  Saracenic  or 
Persian  origin  with  fine  designs  in  Eastern  taste, 
probably  of  still  later  times.  Other  remains,  how- 
ever, can  claim  a  closer  personal  tie  with  the 
Saint  himself.  His  episcopal  ring,  a  plain  one 
ornamented  with  a  sapphire,  was  saved  at  the  de- 
struction of  the  priory.  It  afterwards  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Thomas  Watson,  Dean  of  Durham,  a 
devoted  Roman  Catholic,  who  was  made  Bishop  of 
Lincoln  in  1557.  He  presented  it  to  Sir  Thomas 
Hare,  by  whom  it  was  given  to  Anthony  Brown,  Lord 

^  A,  ii.  7.     See  Raine,  S^.  Cuthberht,  192,  *  lb. 

'  See  Raine,  St.  Cuthberht,  205.  A  minute  and  excellent  account 
of  these  embroideries  has  been  published  by  Professor  Baldwin  Brown, 
and  Mrs.  A.  H.  Christie  in  the  Burlington  Magazine,  vol.  xxiii.  pp.  6 
and  67. 


in 


u 


m 


"/     o 


S 


^'  '^ 


■'—•^-yiMi-r. 


O 

Q 


2 


C-l 

u 

CO 


RELICS  IN  ST.   CUTHBERHT'S  COFFLN        99 

Montacute.  He  gave  it  to  Doctor  Richard  Smith, 
Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Chalcedon,  who  states 
these  facts  in  his  Flores  Historiarum,  p.  1 20.  Accord- 
ing to  Alban  Butler,  he  gave  it  to  the  Monastery 
of  English  Canonesses  at  Paris,  who  also  preserved 
a  tooth  of  the  Saint/  In  1855  it  was  transferred 
to  St.  Cuthberht's  College  at  Ushaw.  There  is  a 
figure  of  it  in  the  ArchcBologia  yEliana,  vi.  66-68. 

Cuthberht's  pectoral  cross  was  also  found  in  his 
coffin  in  1826,  and  is  preserved  at  Durham.  It  is 
of  the  shape  known  as  a  cross  patt^e.  It  was  found 
among  the  remains  of  the  robes,  and  was  attached 
by  a  silken  thread  covered  with  gold.  A  cross,  says 
Bishop  Browne,  with  arms  of  the  same  type  in  the 
main  motive,  is  figured  in  one  of  the  magnificent 
pages  of  the  Lindisfarne  Gospels.  The  cross  is  of 
gold,  with  a  large  garnet  in  the  centre,  another  in 
each  angle,  and  twelve  upon  each  of  the  branches. 
The  loop  by  which  it  was  suspended  is  of  bright 
yellow  gold.  One  of  the  arms  had  been  broken 
long  before  and  had  been  repaired  with  rivets. 
Some  of  the  thread  by  which  it  was  suspended  was 
observed  on  the  neck  of  the  skeleton. 

"I  consider,"  says  Raine,  "the  cross  as  a  personal 
relic  of  the  Saint,  and  it  was  adopted  by  the  monks 
of  Durham  after  1083,  or  perhaps  earlier,  as  is 
shown  by  the  symbol  on  their  seal  of  the  priory, 
which  is  inscribed  :  The  seal  of  Cudberht  the  holy 
Bishop."  The  matrix  is  still  extant  at  Durham, 
and  I  have  given  a  picture  of  it. 

^  Raine,  St.  Cuthberht^  174-176. 


1 00  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Another  personal  relic  of  the  Saint,  which  is  also 
preserved  in  a  ruined  and  fragmentary  state  at 
Durham,  is  Cuthberht's  portable  altar.  Bishop 
Browne  has  described  and  given  a  figure  of  it.  He 
says  it  is  6  inches  by  ^l  inches  square,  and  consists  of 
a  piece  of  oak  one-third  of  an  inch  thick,  covered 
all  over  with  a  silver  plate.  A  considerable  part  of 
the  silver  has  been  lost  on  both  sides.  In  all 
probability  the  tablet  of  wood  had  been  used  by 
itself  before  St.  Cuthberht's  time  for  the  purpose  of 
a  portable  altar,  for  it  bears  the  inscription  : 

INHONOR  .   .   .    SPETRV 

The  letters  are  of  a  very  early  type,  correspond- 
ing to  those  in  the  Lindisfarne  Gospels.  The  N 
has  its  left  member  much  longer  than  the  other ; 
the  O  is  diamond  shaped,  and  the  S  is  like  a  Z 
turned  round.  The  Petru  must  be  the  Greek 
genitive  of  Petros. 

On  the  other  side  there  is  an  inscription  on  the 
silver  face  in  raised  repousse  letters,  beaten  out 
from  behind.     It  reads  : 

P  .  .  .     o  s  .  .  .  s 

that  is,  Petros  Apostolos,  or  Paulos  Apostolos.  The 
inscription  on  the  wood  makes  it  practically  certain 
it  was  Petros. 

In  the  centre  of  what  may  be  called  the  obverse 
side  is  an  ornament  in  a  circle.  It  consists  of  an 
equal-armed  cross  with  a  circular  centre,  and  semi- 


ST.   CUTHBERHT'S  PORTABLE  ALTAR      loi 

circular  or  horseshoe  extremities  to  the  arms.  In 
the  four  angles  formed  by  the  arms  are  pretty 
patterns  of  Anglian  interlacements  of  a  continuous 
line.  , 

Round  the  circle  is  an  inscription  which  has 
been  found  difficult  to  read.  It  is  part  of  a  Greek 
phrase  written  in  Latin  letters.  In  this  all  agree. 
Mr.  Raine,  following  that  on  Acca's  altar/  has 
read  it,  ^'O  HAGIA  ET  ERASTE "  (O  holy 
and  beloved),  and  suggested  the  additional  word 
Trinity  or  Wisdom  or  Mary.  Bishop  Browne 
objects  that  there  is  no  question  that  the  middle 
word  is  EC,  the  Greek  preposition  for  "of"  or 
"out  of"  or  "from."  He  further  thinks  that  Mr. 
Raine  s  G  or  S  cannot  be  maintained.  The  curved 
lines  like  an  S  are  only  marks  of  division  between 
words.^  The  mixed  inscriptions  and  other  features 
of  the  monument  seem  in  any  case  to  compel  the 
conclusion  that  the  maker  of  the  altar  was  a  Greek. 

As  we  shall  see,  a  similar  altar  was  found  on 
the  breast  of  Bishop  Acca  when  his  tomb  was 
opened  about  the  year  looo.^ 

Accordinof  to  Bede,  Cuthberht  wrote  a  set  of 
expositions  entitled  Ordinationes  suae  ecclesiae,  and 
beginning  Prima  regula  est  de  Domino.  He  also 
wrote  Praecepta  vitae  regularise  This  shows  that 
in  his  time  the  Benedictine  Rule  had  not  yet 
become  dominant  in  Eng-land  as  it  became  in  later 

*  Vide  infra. 

*  Bishop  Browne,  Theodore  and  Wilfrith^  278. 
^  See  Raine,  op.  cit.  199-201. 

*  Bale,  Scriptores  Brit.^  i.  84  ;  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.^  i.  728. 


102   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

times.  In  fact,  it  is  probable  that  its  use  in  England 
was  at  this  time  limited  to  St.  Wilfrid's  monasteries. 

In  his  dying  speech  the  Saint  seems  to  allude 
to  one  of  his  tracts  in  his  reference  to  a  body  of 
rules  and  regulations  drawn  up  for  the  Church  over 
which  he  presided.  The  book  of  the  Gospels  which 
he  habitually  used  was  expressly  written  for  him  by 
Eadfrid,  who  presently  became  the  eighth  Bishop 
of  Lindisfarne,  and  it  is  known  as  the  Lindisfarne 
Gospels.  An  account  will  be  given  of  it  later  on 
under  Eadfrid.  It  remained  at  Lindisfarne  till  the 
monks  were  driven  out  by  the  Danes,  and  then 
became  the  companion  of  the  Saint's  travels,  and,  as 
we  have  seen,  fell  into  the  sea  in  the  Solway  Firth  and 
was  afterwards  recovered.  It  still  bears  evidence 
of  its  bath.  Presently  it  was  returned  to  Lindisfarne, 
where  a  colony  of  monks  from  Durham  had  settled 
in  1095  ^^^  had  built  the  church  of  which  so  many 
interesting  ruins  exist.  There  it  remained  till  the 
Dissolution,  and  subsequently  fell  into  the  hands 
of  Sir  Robert  Cotton,  apparently  after  it  had  been 
stripped  of  its  rich  covering.  With  his  library  it 
passed  to  the  British  Museum,  and  is  now  numbered 
"  Nero  D,  iv."  It  lost  its  binding  at  the  Reforma- 
tion.-^ 

A  copy  of  St.  John's  Gospel  which  was  put 
on  the  lid  of  the  inner  coffin  of  St.  Cuthberht,  and 
was  found  there  when  it  was  opened  in  1104,  was 
not  replaced,  but  remained  in  the  church  till  the 
Reformation,   when  it    fell   into  private  hands  and 

^  See  Raine,  34,  note. 


ST.   CUTHBERHT'S  GOSPELS  103 

became    the    property    of   one    of    the     Earls    of 
Lichfield,  one    of  whom    gave    it    to  the  Rev.  T. 
Phillips,  author  of  the  Life  of  Cardinal  Pole,  who 
presented  it  to  the  College  of  Jesuits  at  Liege  in 
the  year   1769.     When  the  college  was  suppressed 
some  of  its  members  brought  it  to  England.^     It  is 
now  at  St.  John's  College  at  Stonyhurst.      It  is  a 
very  interesting  volume,  and  there  is  good  reason 
to  believe  it  is  the  very  book  from  which  Cuthberht 
read  to  his  master  Bosil  when  the  latter  was  dying. 
The  MS.  is  of  small  size,  only  ^\  by  3^  inches, 
and  there  are  nineteen  lines  of  text  on  each  page. 
It  was  described  by  the  Rev.  John  Milner  in  the 
sixteenth  volume  of  the  ArchcBologia.     It  bears  the 
following  inscription    on    the  leaf  opposite   to  the 
beginning  of  the  Gospel :    "  Evangelism  Johannis 
quod  inventum  flier  at  ad  caput  Beati  Patris  nostri 
Cuikberhti,  in  sepulchro  jacens   anno    translationis 
ipsiusy     This   gloss    is    in    a    very  ancient   hand- 
writing.    The  characters  of  the  writing  of  the  book 
itself,  says  Westwood,  bear  intrinsic  evidence  of  an 
antiquity  as  high  as  the  age  of  St.  Cuthberht,  and 
it  is  written  without  chapters,  verses,  diphthongs, 
or  points  of  any  kind.     The  letters  are  all  uncials 
or  capitals,  and  for  the  most  part  Roman,  but  having 
the  "  N  "  often  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  form,  with  the 
oblique    stroke   arising    very    low    upon    the   first 
perpendicular  stroke. 

Dr.   Milner  points  out  a  number  of  variants  in 
the    text,  which   go    to  show    that    the  version    it 

^  Raine,  p.  'jZ.^  note. 


104  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

followed  was  not  that  of  the  New  Vulgate  of 
Jerome,  but  of  the  Old  Vulgate  which  preceded 
Jerome's  alterations.  It  is  noteworthy  that  it  con- 
tains the  story  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery. 
The  first  word  "  In  "  in  the  book  is  alone  written  in 
red  letters,  and  the  passage  ''  Fuit  homo  missus  a 
Do"  commences  with  a  capital  ''  F  "  rather  smaller 
than  the  initial  ''  I."  The  name  Johannes  is  spelt 
correctly.^ 

Reginald  of  Durham  tells  a  quaint  story  of  this 
book.  He  says  that  in  the  time  of  Hugh,  Bishop 
of  Durham,  William,  Archbishop  of  York,  visited 
the  shrine  of  St.  Cuthberht,  and  was  shown  the  more 
precious  treasures  of  the  church ;  among  others,  was 
the  most  precious  of  all,  the  book  of  St.  Cuthberht 
which  the  sacrist  Benedict,  who  was  dressed  in 
his  alb,  carried  suspended  around  his  neck.  The 
archbishop  took  it,  opened  and  read  it,  and 
then  hung  it  round  the  necks  of  his  domestics 
and  friends  in  turn.  The  sacrist  had  never  seen 
the  precious  book  opened  before.  It  was  kept  in 
three  bags,  one  enclosed  within  another,  made  of 
red  leather.^ 

Another  companion  of  Cuthberht's  wanderings 

was  the  polished  stone  cross  which  Bishop  ^thel- 

wald,  his  friend,  had  designed.^     It  was  probably 

made  in  the  fashion  of  the  other  crosses  of  the  time, 

and    ornamented    with    interlaced    work.       On    it 

1  Westwood,   o/>.   cit.^   "  The   Gospels   of  Saints  Augustine  and 
Cuthberht,"  5  and  6. 

^  Reginald  of  Durham,  Libellus,  ch.  xci. 
**  Sym.  Dun.,  Hist.  Eccl.  Dun.,  i.  ch.  xii. 


Shaf'I'  of  the  Cross  which  Bishop  Browne  identifies 

AS   THAT   OF    BiSHOP    .KtHELWOLD. 


[  / '('/.  ///. ,  facing  />.  104. 


iETHELWALD^S  CROSS  T05 

-^thelwald  put  his  own  name,  but  it  had  apparently 
been  made  in  honour  of  St.  Cuthberht.  It  was  at 
Lindisfarne  until  the  Danes  came.  They  broke  off 
its  head,  which  was  afterwards  fastened  to  the  body 
again  with  lead.  In  Symeon  of  Durham's  day  it 
was  standing  erect  [stans  sublimis)  in  the  cemetery 
at  Durham.  We  are  told  it  accompanied  Cuthberht's 
remains  in  their  perambulations.^  How  an  object 
of  such  weiofht  could  have  been  thus  moved  about 
is  not  easy  to  understand !  Bishop  Browne  has 
suggested  that  this  monument  still  exists  in  part 
in  a  beautiful  shaft  of  a  cross  which  was  some  years 
a^o  taken  out  of  the  wall  of  St.  Oswald's  Church  at 
Durham.  I  have  his  permission  to  reproduce  this 
shaft,  of  which  he  says  there  is  no  reason  of  date  or 
style  why  it  should  not  be  as  tradition  makes  it, 
the  shaft  of  ^thelwald's  cross.^ 

^  Hist.  Eccl.  Dun.,  i.  ch.  xii.     Leland  says  it  was  still  there  in  his 
day  {Coll.,  i.  370). 

2  See  Browne,  Theodore  and  Wilfrith,  209,  293. 


CHAPTER   XII 

ST.   CUTHBERHrS  CONTEMPORARIES, 
FRIENDS,  AND  PUPILS 

However  exemplary  a  saint  Cuthberht  was,  he 
was  a  very  unsatisfactory,  not  to  say  ridiculous, 
bishop,  and  we  cannot  realise  how  his  diocese  was 
managed  at  all  while  he  hid  away  in  his  anchorite's 
cell  and  refused  to  see  any  one  save  through  a  peep- 
hole. On  his  death  St.  Wilfrid  took  charge  of  the 
see  for  twelve  months  until  a  fitting  occupant  could 
be  found  for  it.  As  we  have  seen,  Wilfrid's  stricter 
discipline  and  more  rigid  adherence  to  Roman  ways 
caused  much  heart-burning  among  the  monks  there. 
A  suitable  successor  was  presently  found  in  a  certain 
Eadberht,^  who  was  doubtless  a  monk  of  the 
monastery.  Bede  describes  him  as  a  man  renowned 
for  his  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  and  for  his 
observance  of  the  divine  precepts  and  almsgiving. 
He  every  year  gave  a  tithe  not  only  of  his  four- 
footed  beasts,  but  even,  says  Bede,  of  all  corn  and 
fruits,  and  also  gave  clothes  to  the  poor.^  He 
tells  us  further  that  he  took  off  the  thatch  from  the 
oaken  church  built    by  St.    Aidan  at    Lindisfarne, 

*  Bede,  H.E.,  iv.  27  [29].  2  /^^ 

106 


BISHOP  EADBERHT  107 

and  covered  not  only  the  roof  but  also  the  walls 
with  lead.^  As  we  have  seen,  he  consented  to  the 
translation  of  St.  Cuthberht's  body,  which  he  ordered 
the  monks  to  carry  out  on  the  anniversary  of  his 
deposition,  20th  March  698.^ 

Bede  tells  us  that  Eadberht  used  in  Lent  and 
during  the  forty  days  before  Christmas  to  retire  to 
a  place  encompassed  by  the  ocean  [i.e.  some  island 
other  than  Fame),  where  he  indulged  in  various 
austerities.  He  was  absent  on  one  of  these  retreats 
when  the  translation  of  Bede's  remains  took  place, 
and  when  the  monks  took  him  a  portion  of  the 
Saint's  garments  he  kissed  them  as  if  they  had 
still  been  on  the  latter's  body.  He  then  bade 
them  deposit  the  remains  in  the  new  coffin  they 
had  prepared  and  in  its  new  garments.  **  I  am 
very  certain,"  he  added,  "that  its  old  resting-place 
will  not  long  remain  empty,  having  been  sanctified 
by  so  many  miracles  of  heavenly  grace."  He 
added  that  the  man  would  indeed  be  happy  to 
whom  the  Lord  should  grant  the  privilege  of  lying 
in  the  same  spot.  He  fell  ill  and  died  on  the  6th 
of  May  698,  after  having  been  bishop  for  ten  years, 
and  they  buried  him  in  the  grave  where  Cuthberht 
had  once  been,  and  placed  the  latter's  new  coffin 
with  that  Saint's  body  in  it  on  a  stand  over  the  old 
grave.  "  The  miracles  of  healing  sometimes  wrought 
in  that  place  testified,"  we  are  told,  "to  the  merits 
of  both."  ^ 

Alcuin,  in  his  poem,  "  de  Clade  Lindisf. 
1  Bede,  H.E.,  iii.  25.  2  /^^  j^.  28  [30].  ^  lb. 


1 08  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Monast,"  vv.  169  and  170,  attributes  a  miracle  to 
him  not  mentioned  by  Bede.^ 

"Composuit  precibus  Eadberht  minitantia  mortem 
Flabra,  pius  praesul  vester  et  ipse  pater." 

He  has  a  place  in  the  Calendar  on  May  the  8th. 

His  relics  shared  the  fate  of  those  of  St. 
Cuthberht,  and  some  of  them  were  placed  in  his 
coffin  and  were  found  in  it  when  it  was  opened  in 
1827.^  A  life  of  him  in  Anglo-Saxon  which,  ac- 
cording to  Hardy,  is  entirely  taken  from  Bede,  is 
extant  in  two  eleventh-century  MSS.^ 

He  was  succeeded  by  Eadfrid,  who  became  a 
priest  at  the  age  of  thirty,  spent  the  rest  of  his 
life  in  writing  books,  and  was  greatly  devoted  to  St. 
Cuthberht.  In  regard  to  this,  Symeon's  words  are  : 
'' Multuni  ferv ens  amove r  The  author  of  the  an- 
onymous life  of  Cuthberht  dedicated  it  to  Eadfrid 
and  to  "the  family  "  at  Lindisfarne,  at  whose  instance 
he  said  he  had  written  it.  His  fame  rests  very 
largely  on  his  having  been  the  scribe  of  the  most 
interesting  and  beautiful  of  all  early  illuminated 
MSS.,  namely,  the  so-called  Lindisfarne  Gospels. 
This  famous  book  was  described  in  the  inventories 
of  the  House  at  Durham  as  "  Liber  S.  Cutkberti qui 
demersus  est  in  mare,''  referring  to  the  bath  it  had  had 
in  the  sea.*  At  the  Dissolution  it  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Robert  Bowyer,  Clerk  of  the  Parliaments  in 
the  reign  of  James  i.,  from  whom  it  was  acquired  by 

*  See  also  Plummer,  ii.  271. 

2  Raine,  Cuthberht,  79  ;  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.,  ii.  3. 

8  Hardy,  Catalogue,  i.  365.  ■*  Ante,  p.  102. 


E  r«^ 


o 


y.    ^ 


■    o 


X     Si 

C     O 


O     ~ 


o    P 


C/2 


THE  LINDISFARNE  GOSPELS  109 

Sir  Robert  Cotton,  and  is  now  labelled  "  Nero  D,  iv." 
among  the  Cottonian  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum. 
The  text  of  these  Gospels  with  theirinvaluable  North- 
umbrian Q^losses  has  been  edited  for  the  Surtees 
Society  by  Stevenson  and  Waring,  while  a  more 
exact  rendering  was  brought  out  by  the  Syndics  of  the 
Cambridge  University  Press  and  edited  by  Kemble 
and  Hardwick,  and  since  their  deaths  by  Skeat.  The 
glosses  have  been  printed  by  Karl  Bouterwek/ 

The  origin  and  earlier  history  of  the  volume  are 
told  in  a  gloss  it  contains  written  in  the  tenth 
century,  and  in  the  Northumbrian  dialect,  by  the 
scribe  Aldred,  who  in  it  styles  himself  the  son  of 
Alfred  and  Tilwin,  and  who  was  not  improbably, 
as  Dr.  O'Conor  urged  in  his  Catalogue  of  the 
Stoive  MSS.,  the  same  Aldred  who  was  Bishop  of 
Chester-le-Street  from  957  to  968.^ 

The  paragraph  in  question  is  not  quite  clear  In 
meaning,  is  written  in  the  vernacular,  and  contains 
occasional  Latin  words.  It  was  thus  translated  by 
Professor  Skeat :  ^ — 

'' Eadfrid^,  Bishop  of  the  Lindisfarne  Church,  at 
the  first  wrote  this  book  in  honour  of  God  and  Saint 
Cu^berht  and  all  the  saints  in  common  that  are  in 
the  island.  And  E(Tilwald,  Bishop  of  the  people  of 
the  Lindisfarne  Island,  made  it  firm  on  the  outside 
and  covered  it  as  well  as  he  could,  and  Billfri(5^  the 

^  Die  vier  Evangelien  in  altnordhu7nbrischer  Sprache^  800,  1857  ; 
Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.^  ii.  7. 

2  Op.  cit.  ii.  180. 

^  The  Gospel  according  to  Saint  Johi  in  Anglo-Saxoji  aiid 
Northumbrian  Versions,  1878,  p.  viii. 


1 1  o  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Anchorite  {se  oncre,)  wrought  in  smith's  work  the 
ornaments  that  are  on  the  outside  and  adorned 
it  with  gold  and  also  with  gems,  and  overlaid  it 
with  silver,  a  treasure  without  deceit  {faconleas  feh, 
i.e.  with  unalloyed  metal),  and  Aldred,  an  unworthy 
and  most  miserable  priest,  with  the  help  of  God 
and  Saint  Cu^berht  overglossed  it  (hit  ofergloesade) 
in  English  {on  englisc)  and  made  himself  at  home 
(gihamadi)  with  the  three  parts — Matthew's  part, 
for  the  honour  of  God  and  St.  Cu^berht,  Mark's 
part  for  the  Bishop,  and  Luke's  part  for  the  brother- 
hood,— together  with  eight  oras  of  silver  for  his 
own  admission, — and  Saint  John's  part  for  himself, 
together  with  four  oras  of  silver  [deposited]  with 
God  and  Saint  Cu^berht,  to  the  end  that  he  might 
gain  admittance  into  heaven  through  God's  mercy, 
and  on  earth  happiness  and  peace,  promotion  and 
dignity,  wisdom  and  prudence,  through  Saint 
Cu^berht's  merits. 

*'  Eadfri^,  CEa^iluald,  Billfri^,  and  Aldred  made 
and  adorned  this  Gospel  book  in  honour  of  God 
and  Saint  Cu^berht." 

There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  tradition  in  the 
Abbey  thus  preserved  by  Aldred  as  to  the  origin 
of  the  book,  which  was  their  greatest  treasure. 

Sir  E.  M.  Thompson  (who  has  discussed  the 
authorship  of  the  glosses,  some  of  which  are 
written  in  red  ink  and  some  in  black,  with  certain 
variants  in  orthography)  attributes  them  all  to  this 
same  Aldred.^     The  text,  he  says,  was  written  by 

^  Cat.  MSS.  Brit.  Mus.^  ii.  Latin,  i6  and  17. 


THE  LINDISFARNE  GOSPELS  iii 

Bishop  Eadfrid,  who  held  the  see  from  698  to  721. 
It  was  doubtless  written  before  he  became  Bishop, 
since  it  would  seem  to  have  been  put  together  in 
honour  of  St.  Cuthberht,  who  died  in  687. 

The  fame  and  importance  of  the  MS.  necessitate 
a  somewhat  detailed  description  of  it,  since  it  is  by 
far  the  most  important  artistic  monument  associated 
with  St.  Cuthberht  and  his  companions.  Westwood, 
in  describing  it,  says  :  "This  noble  MS.,  the  glory 
of  the  Cottonian  Library,  and  the  most  elaborately 
ornamented  of  all  the  Anglo-Saxon  MSS.,  consists 
of  258  leaves  of  thick  vellum,  measuring  13I  by 
9I  inches,  and  containing  the  four  Gospels  written 
in  double  columns,  according  to  Jerome's  version, 
with  an  interlineary  Anglo-Saxon  gloss.  The  text 
of  the  Gospels  is  preceded  by  the  Epistle  of  St. 
Jerome  to  Damasus,  Jerome's  own  preface,  the 
Epistle  of  Eusebius  to  Carpianus,  the  Eusebian 
Canon,  the  arguments  of  each  Gospel,  and  the 
capitiila  of  the  Lessons  to  be  read  on  different 
festivals.  The  Ammonian  sections  and  references 
to  the  canons  are  noted  in  the  margin." 

Sir  Edward  Thompson  points  out  that  the 
arrangement  of  the  chapters  of  all  four  Gospels 
corresponds  with  that  in  the  well-known  Codex 
Aniiatinus,  which  I  have  discussed  in  an  appendix, 
and  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  text  was, 
in  fact,  taken  from  that  most  famous  of  Abbot 
Ceolfrid's  MSS. 

In  describing  the  writing,  the  same  great 
authority  says  the  text   is  written  stichometrically 


1 1 2  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

in  very  beautifully  formed  half-uncial  letters  of  a 
massive  type,  with  occasional  use  of  capitals,  the 
words  being  generally  separated.  Each  Gospel  is 
divided  into  sections  for  Lessons,  each  one  begin- 
nincr  with  an  ornamental  initial  letter  and  numbered 
in  red.  The  subdivisions  of  Ammonian  sections 
are  marked  by  smaller  initial  letters,  as  well  as  by 
the  marginal  reference  numbers. 

The  titles  of  the  Gospels  and  generally  those 
of  the  prefaces,  etc.,  are  in  red  half-uncial  letters 
like  the  text.  Each  Gospel  also  has  with  the  title 
similar  letters  in  gold  the  names  of  the  symbols  : 
p,  IHS,  XPS,  ''Mathaeus  homo,"  '' Marcus  leo," 
''P  Lucas  vitulus,"  '*  f^  Johannis  (sic)  aquila."  The 
colophons  and  some  of  the  titles  are  in  large  and 
fanciful  slender  capitals,  red  and  black.  The  titles 
and  colophons  of  the  Eusebian  tables  are  also  in 
the  same  fanciful  capitals.^ 

Westwood  gives  us  more  details.  He  says : 
"  The  text  of  the  Gospels  is  continued  throughout, 
without  any  illuminated  capitals  to  the  several 
divisions,  the  first  letter  of  each  verse  rather  larger 
than  the  text,  and  coloured  with  patches  of  red, 
green,  etc.  The  letters  of  the  Latin  text  are  quite 
similar  to,  but  smaller  than,  those  of  the  Book  of 
Kells,  the  Gospels  of  St.  Chad,  of  Mac  Regol,  etc.  ; 
the  *  d '  is  either  uncial  or  minuscule,  the  '  f,  p,  q ' 
with  short  tails  below  the  lines ;  the  '  r '  either 
capital  or  shaped  like  '  n ' ;  the  *  s '  also  either 
capital  or  like  T,'  the  top  elevated  above  the  line. 

^  Thompson,  op.  cit.  15. 


lUaprcreiiauTrljn 


m 


'^J>^    i:^cciiUClnTnhico^'   ; 


Z*''''^*^- 


Ornamental  I.nhia!.  Letter  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel  in  the 

LiNDISIARNE    MS. 


\\'oL  III.,  facing  p.  ii; 


THE  LINDISFARNE  GOSPELS  113 

The  letters  at  the  end  of  the  Hnes  are  often 
singularly  conjoined  for  want  of  space."  ^  The 
whole  or  part  of  the  first  word  in  each  of  the  various 
capitals  in  the  volume  is  formed  of  ornamental 
letters.  The  first  page  of  each  Gospel  (and  in 
St.  Matthew,  also  of  the  '*  Liber  generationis  ")  and 
of  the  first  preface  of  St.  Jerome,  is  in  large  letters 
of  most  elaborate  patterns,  with  borders,  etc.^ 

On  the  subject  of  the  illustrations  I  find 
myself  differing  from  those  who  have  written  on 
the  book. 

It  seems  to  me  quite  plain  that  these  ornamental 
letters  and  the  illuminations  generally  were  the 
handiwork  of  more  than  one  artist,  and  consist  of 
three  quite  different  types  of  ornament.  One  of 
these  classes,  constituting  the  great  portion  of  the 
book,  is  of  unmistakably  Irish  work,  and  must,  it 
seems  to  me,  have  been  designed  and  painted  by 
an  Irish  artist.  They  are  precisely  of  the  type  and 
technique  of  the  illuminations  contained  in  well- 
known  Irish  MSS.  Is  it  impossible  that  a  famous 
Irish  artist  named  Ultan,  mentioned  as  a  well- 
known  illuminator  ^  by  ^thelwulf  in  his  poem  on 
the  abbots,  was  the  painter  of  these  wonderful  Irish 
pictures  ? 

"The  large  initial  letters  are  of  eisrantic 
dimensions  and  most  elegantly  ornamented  with 
a  combination  of  geometrical  patterns,  interlaced 
ribbons,    spiral    lines,     and    intertwined    lacertine 

»  Westwood,  Pal.  Bibl,  163.  «  Thompson,  op.  cit.  15. 

*  Vide  infra^  p.  133. 
VOL.  HI. — 8 


1 1 4  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

animals,  birds  and  beasts  with  necks,  legs,  and 
bodies  knitted  and  woven  together,  while  the 
most  perfect  harmony  and  accuracy  of  detail  are 
maintained. 

"  The  pigments  are  brilliant  and  generally  light 
in  tint,  and  are  for  the  most  part  thickly  laid  on. 
This  gives  the  patterns  the  appearance  of  enamel, 
an  effect  which  is  generally  enhanced  by  filling  in 
the  interstices  with  black.  Gold  is  used  in  one  or 
two  places,  but  only  as  minute  spots  or  to  fill  small 
triangles. 

''  Many  of  the  fanciful  letters  and  the  initial 
letters  of  sections  are  filled  with  patches  of  colour, 
and  are  edged  with  or  laid  upon  a  background  of 
red  dots,  which  are  often  arranged  in  patterns."^ 

"  The  initial  letter  '  N  '  of  the  Episde  of  St. 
Jerome  has  the  first  stroke  elongated  down  the  left 
margin  of  the  page,  and  the  connecting  stroke  is 
composed  of  two  large  spiral  ornaments.  The 
initial  of  the  '  Liber  o^enerationis '  is  larore  and  of 
the  rounded  form;  the  'i'  formed  into  a  long  'j,' 
crossing  the  lower  part  of  the  '1,'  and  the  'b'  also 
large  and  of  the  rounded  form  (as  in  the  Gospels  of 
the  Bibliotheque  du  Roi,  published  by  Silvestre,  etc.), 
and  the  initial  letters  of  the  two  other  Gospels, 
*  1 N I  '  {Initiu7n)  and  *  I N  P '  (^In  Principio)^  are 
conjoined  together  as  in  most  of  the  early  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Irish  Codices,  the  first  stroke  being 
nearly  1 1  inches  long. 

**  The  wonderful  precision  and  delicacy  of  touch 

^  Thompson,  op.  cit.  i6. 


THE  LINDISFARNE  GOSPELS  115 

exhibited  in  the  ornamental  patterns  of  which  these 
three  initials  are  composed  have  justly  attracted  the 
admiration  of  every  writer  on  the  subject.  It  is 
difficult  to  imagine  what  were  the  instruments  of 
the  caligrapher,  so  perfectly  regular  and  free  from 
error  is  the  drawing,  even  in  the  most  complicated 
parts  of  the  patterns  ;  indeed,  from  the  appearance 
of  the  reverse  of  the  leaves,  it  seems  evident  that 
a  very  hard  instrument  has  been  used."  Westwood 
suggests  that  it  could  only  have  been  executed  by 
means  of  cut  tools  or  blocks.  The  other  letters 
in  these  ornamental  pages  vary  from  half  an  inch 
to  I  "I  inch  in  height ;  they  are  greatly  diversified  in 
form,  scarcely  any  two  being  alike,  many  of  them 
the  result  of  the  fancy  of  the  caligrapher,  "others," 
says  Westwood,  ''obtained  from  other  sources  than 
the  Roman  alphabet.  The  pure  Greek  letters  found 
in  this  and  other  contemporary  MSS.  are  to  be 
accounted  for  from  the  intercourse  between  the 
Irish,  Anglo-Saxon,  and  Greek  Christians.  The 
capital  '  M  '  also,  singularly  formed,  as  it  mostly  is, 
of  three  perpendicular  strokes  united  across  the 
middle  with  one  horizontal  bar,  or  occasionally 
with  two  bars,  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  Roman 
inscription." 

**The  Eusebian  Canons  are  inscribed  within 
highly  ornamented  columns  supporting  rounded 
arches  of  beautiful  execution,  except  the  first 
words  of  the  prefaces,  arguments,  and  capitula 
of  each  of  the  Gospels,  which  are  written  in  letters 
of  larger  size  and  ornamented  like  the  title-pages." 


1 1 6  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Let  us  now  turn  to  another  class  of  designs. 
These  include,  beside  the  illuminated  title-pages, 
the  initial  page  of  each  of  five  divisions  of  the 
volume.  They  are  completely  covered  with 
coloured  tesselated  patterns  of  the  utmost  intri- 
cacy, generally  disposed  so  as  to  form  a  cruciform 
design  in  the  centre  of  the  page.  This  elaborately 
beautiful  feature  is  entirely  peculiar  to  the  MSS. 
executed  in  Ireland  or  by  the  Irish  scholars,  and  in 
its  neatness,  precision,  and  delicacy  far  surpasses 
the  productions  of  contemporary  artists  on  the 
Continent.  The  style  and  design  point,  however, 
to  another  hand  than  the  author  of  the  paintings 
last  described. 

A  third  artist  was  probably  a  foreigner,  or 
some  Enorlishman  who  had  learnt  from  a  foreio^ner. 
His  are  the  likenesses  of  the  Evangelists,  each 
accompanied  by  his  respective  symbol.  They  each 
occupy  a  page  at  the  head  of  the  several  Gospels, 
and  are  executed  in  a  style  of  art  quite  unlike  that 
of  the  Irish  or  early  Anglo-Saxon  school,  and  bear- 
ing evident  traces  of  Byzantine  origin,  not  only  in  its 
composition  but  also  in  the  Greek  words  inscribed 
(in  Roman  capitals) — "O  Agios  Matthaeus,"  instead 
of  the  Latin  "  Sanctus  Matthaus,"  and  which  in 
the  picture  of  St.  Mark  is  written  *'  O  Agius  (sic) 
Marcus,"  with  a  Latin  termination.  Waagen  says 
of  the  designs  :  **  They  are,  notwithstanding,  very 
different  from  the  contemporary  Byzantine  and 
Italian  paintings,  as  well  as  from  those  of  the 
monarchy  of  the  Franks  of  the  eighth  and  ninth 


iNiTiAi-  Pagk  of  One  of  the  Five  Divisions  of   ihk 

LiNDISFARNE    MS. 


[/■<'/.  f/f.,/aci)igp.  ii6. 


THE  LINDISFARNE  GOSPELS  117 

centuries,  for  in  all  these  the  character  of  ancient 
art,  in  which  the  four  Evangelists  were  originally 
represented,  is  very  clearly  retained  in  the  design 
and  treatment ;  these  paintings,  on  the  contrary, 
have  a  very  barbarous  appearance,  but  are  executed 
in  their  way  with  the  greatest  mechanical  skill. 
Nothing  remains  of  the  Byzantine  models  but  the 
attitudes,  the  fashion  of  the  dress,  and  the  form  of 
the  seats.  Instead  of  the  broad  antique  execution 
with  the  pencil,  in  water  colours,  in  which  the 
shadows,  lights,  and  middle  tints  were  given,  all 
the  outlines  here  are  very  delicately  traced  with  the 
pen  and  only  the  local  colours  put  on,  so  that  the 
shadows  are  entirely  wanting,  with  the  exception 
of  the  sockets  of  the  eyes  and  along  the  nose.  The 
faces  are  quite  inanimate,  like  a  piece  of  calligraphy  ; 
the  folds  of  the  drapery  are  marked  with  a  very 
different  local  colour  from  that  of  the  drapery  itself  ; 
thus,  for  instance,  in  the  green  mantle  of  St. 
Matthew  they  are  vermilion.  Besides  this,  there 
is  no  meaning  except  in  the  principal  folds  of  the 
garments ;  in  the  smaller  ones  the  strokes  are  quite 
arbitrary  and  mechanical.  Among  the  colours, 
which  are  often  laid  on  very  thick,  only  the  red 
and  blue  are,  properly  speaking,  opaque,  but  all  of 
them  are  as  brilliant  as  if  the  paintings  had  been 
finished  only  yesterday.  Gold,  on  the  contrary,  is 
used  in  very  small  portions."^ 

It  is  most  unlikely  that  these  last  pictures  with 

^  Waagen's   Art  and  Artists  in  England^  i.   137  ;   Westwood's 
PalcEographia  Sacra^  162-164. 


1 1 8  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

their  inspiration  should  have  been  painted  by  the 
Irish  scribes,  who  ahiiost  certainly  illuminated  the 
rest  of  the  volume. 

In  reo"ard  to  the  covers  of  the  volume,  there  is 
some  ambiguity.  "  Aldred,  as  we  have  seen,  says 
that  Oi(Tilwald,  Bishop  of  the  people  of  the  Lindis- 
farne  Island"  {i.e.  Eadfrid's  successor),  made  it  [i.e. 
the  book)  firm  on  the  outside  and  covered  it  as  well 
as  he  could,  and  Billfrid  the  anchorite  wrought  in 
smith's  work  the  ornaments  that  are  on  the  outside, 
and  adorned  it  with  gold  and  also  with  gems  over- 
laid with  silver,  a  treasure  without  deceit  {i.e.  made 
of  unalloyed  metal).^  Symeon  of  Durham  says 
that  Eadfrid's  successor,  *'  the  venerable  Ethelwold  " 
{sic)  ordered  it  to  be  ornamented  with  gold  and 
decked  with  gems,  and  that  the  work  was  carried 
out  by  Billfrid  the  anchorite.^     Who  was  he  ? 

Stubbs  says  that  Billfrid  is  made  a  contemporary 
of  St.  Balthere.^  Some  of  the  relics  of  Balthere  and 
Billfrid  were  put  in  St.  Cuthberht's  coffin.*  Billfrid 
is  no  doubt  the  '' Bilfrith  presbyter"  mentioned 
among  the  anchorites  in  the  Liber  Vitae  at  Durham, 
which  also  mentions  a  "  Balthere  presbyter." 
Symeon  of  Durham  tells  us  he  lived  the  life  of  an 
anchorite  at  Tiningham  and  died  in  757.^  Balthere 
is  probably  the  same  as  Baldred  in  Bishop  Forbes' 
Kaleiidars  of  the  Scottish  Church,  273  and  274. 
He  says  that  his  church  at  Tiningham  had  the 

*  Thompson,  op.  cit.  p.  16.       ^  Symeon  of  Durham,  H.D.E.^  ii.  12. 

*  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.,  i.  318.     '^  Raine,  St,  Cuthberht,  79,  note. 

*  Op.  cit.  ii.  ch.  2. 


T^^^^m 


^ 


A  Similar  Pa(;e  from  the  Lixdiskarne  MS. 

[  I'o/.  III. ,  facing  /.  1 1 8. 


BISHOP  EADFRID  119 

right  of  sanctuary,  and  that  at  Prestoune  Kirk  (sic) 
some  places  near  the  church  are  still  known  as 
St.  Baldred's  well  and  Baldred's  whill  (a  pool  or 
eddy  in  the  river).  A  rock  which  impeded  the 
navicration  is  said  to  have  moved  to  the  shore  at 
his  bidding.  It  is  still  called  the  toursha  or 
scapha  of  St.  Baldred.  His  cave  is  also  shown 
on  the  coast  near  Aldhame.^  ''  Both  tradition  and 
the  existence  of  a  ruin  on  the  Bass  Rock,"  adds 
Forbes,  ''testify  to  the  former  habitation  of  an 
island  saint,  who,  known  as  Baldred  or  Balthere, 
was  honoured  in  Scotland  on  the  6th  of  March. 
The  legend  in  the  Aberdeen  Breviary  is  to  that 
effect."^  Alculn  has  a  long  notice  of  him  in  his 
poem  de  Pontificis  Ecclesiae  Eboracensis^  in  which 
he  speaks  of  his  living  on  the  wild  coast  of 
Northumbria — 

"Inter  monstra  maris,  scopulosas  inter  et  undas, 
Ut  possit  portum  portans  attingere  tutum 
Est  locus  undoso  circumdatus  undique  ponto, 
Rupibus  horrendis,  praerupto  et  margine  septus" — 

batdlng  with  the  hosts  of  fiends.  He  tells  us  how- 
he  rescued  a  soul  from  them,  and  was  also  wont  to 
walk  upon  the  sea  like  St.  Peter.^  Symeon  of  Durham 
gives  his  date  in  the  calendar  as  756."* 

Let  us  now  return  to  Eadfrid's  career.  Bede 
dedicated  his  prose  Life  of  St.  CtUhberht  to  him  in 
the  words:  "To  the  holy  and  most  blessed  father 

1  Forbes,  op.  cit.  273.  ^  lb. 

^  Raine,  Historians  of  the  Church  of  York^  p.  388. 

^  Hist.  Reg.^  ch.  42. 


1 20  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Eadfrld,  Bishop,  and  to  all  the  Congregation  of  the 
Brethren  who  serve  Christ  in  the  Island  of  Lindis- 
farne  :  Baeda,  your  faithful  fellow-servant,  sendeth 
greeting. "  In  acknowledgment  of  his  having  written 
this  work  at  their  bidding,  the  monks  of  Lindisfarne 
promised  that  he  should  be  duly  remembered  in 
their  prayers.  He  died  in  721,^  and  some  of  his 
relics  were  preserved  in  St.  Cuthberht's  coffin.^ 

Symeon  of  Durham  tells  us  that  he  rebuilt  the 
oratory  at  Fame  where  Cuthberht  had  lived  his 
solitary  life.  Cuthberht  had  been  succeeded  as 
hermit  there  by  Ethelwald.  Bede  calls  him 
Oidilwald  in  his  history,  and  ^dilwald  in  his 
biography  of  St.  Cuthberht.  He  had  lived  some 
years  at  Ripon  and  presently  received  the  priest- 
hood there,  where  Cuthberht  was  doubtless  his 
companion.  Bede  reports  a  story  about  him  which 
he  had  heard  from  Gudfrid,  afterwards  abbot  of 
the  monastery  at  Lindisfarne.  "  On  one  occasion," 
he  says,  ''he  had  visited  the  island  with  two  of 
the  brethren  to  hear  *  the  Reverend  Father  Oidil- 
wald.' On  their  return  to  the  mainland  they  were 
overtaken  by  a  storm,  and  there  seemed  no  hope 
of  escape.  On  looking  behind  them  they  saw 
the  hermit  on  the  island  praying  for  them.  The 
storm  thereupon  abated  until  they  had  reached  the 
land  and  dragged  the  boat  ashore,  when  it  returned 
again."  ^  In  his  Life  of  St.  Cuthberht,  Bede  states 
that  after    many  years   of  monastic  life  Oidilwald 

^  Florence  of  Worcester,  M.H.B.,  541. 

*  Raine's  Cuthberht,  60,  79.  '  H.E.,  v.  i. 


BISHOP  EADFRID  121 

had  been  found  worthy  "to  ascend  to  the  dignity 
of  a  hermit's  profession."  Cuthberht's  oratory  had 
gone  to  decay,  and  the  planks  of  which  it  had  been 
built  had  been  riven  asunder.  His  successor  stopped 
up  the  chinks  with  straw  or  clay  lest  he  should  be 
hindered  from  his  devotions  by  the  fierceness  of  the 
weather,  and  he  further  nailed  up  a  calfs  hide  in 
that  corner  where  he  and  St.  Cuthberht  were  often 
wont  to  pray.^  He  remained  on  the  island  for 
twelve  years  and  died  there  in  699,  but  was  buried 
in  the  church  at  Lindisfarne.  His  feast-day,  accord- 
ing to  Raine,  was  23rd  March,  but  his  biography 
is  entered  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum  on  3rd  March.^ 
"  Oidilwald  presbyter"  heads  the  list  of  hermits 
in  the  Liber  Vitae.  Some  of  his  bones  and  hair 
were  found  in  St.  Cuthberht's  coffin.^ 

He  was  succeeded  as  Hermit  of  Fame  by 
Felgild  above  named.  For  him  Bishop  Eadfrid 
put  the  oratory  into  thorough  repair  from  its 
foundations.  Felgild  made  a  relic  of  the  calfs  skin 
previously  named,  and  cut  it  up  into  small  pieces  to 
give  away  to  the  unfortunates  who  were  ill.  He  is 
said  to  have  first  tested  it  on  himself,  and  having 
soaked  a  piece  of  it,  he  washed  his  face  with  the 
water,  and  thus  cured  a  red  tumour  which  had 
troubled  him  for  a  long  time  and  had  latterly  by 
neglect  become  much  worse.  Bede  claims  to  have 
heard  this  from  a  devout  priest  at  Jarrow  whom 
he  knew,  who  had  been  allowed  to  feel  the  hermit's 

*  Op.  cit.  chap.  xlvi.  *  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.y  ii.  228-9. 

^  Raine,  Cuthberht,  79,  note. 


122   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

face  through  his  Httle  window  and  thus  to  testify  to 
the  cure.  He  tells  us  Felgild  was  over  seventy  years 
of  age  when  he  himself  wrote  Cuthberht's  life/ 

Eadfrid  was  succeeded  as  Bishop  at  Lindisfarne 
by  Athelwald  or  yE^ilwald,  who  had  been  a  servant 
{minister)  of  St.  Cuthberht,^  and  had  became 
praepositus  or  prior  of  the  Abbey  of  Melrose, 
which  office  he  filled  when  the  anonymous  Life  of 
Cuthberht  was  written.  At  the  time  Bede  wrote 
his  prose  Life  he  had  become  abbot,^  and  still  filled 
that  office  when  King  Aldfrid  visited  the  monastery 
to  hear  Dryhthelm's  visions.* 

There  is  some  difficulty  about  the  date  of  his 
succession  to  the  see;  it  is  generally  put  in  724, 
but  in  that  case  it  must  have  been  vacant  for 
three  years  after  the  death  of  Eadfrid,  who  died  in 
721.  Mr.  Plummer  seems  to  me  to  be  right  in 
making  him  succeed  on  the  death  of  his  predecessor 
in  721.^  As  we  have  seen,  he  caused  a  beautiful 
stone  cross  to  be  erected  in  memory  of  St.  Cuthberht 
with  his  own  name  upon  it  at  Lindisfarne,^  and,  as 
we  have  also  seen,  he  also  caused  a  cover  of  gold 
and  jewels  to  be  made  for  the  Lindisfarne  Gospels, 
which  is  no  longer  in  existence ;  it  had  been  re- 
moved before  the  book  came  into  Sir  Robert 
Cotton's  collection."^ 

Among  Aldhelm's  letters  there  is  one  addressed 
to  him  by  a  certain  y^thelwald,^  who  some  have 

1  Bede,  Vit.  St.  Cuth.,  xlvi.  2  Vit.  Anon.,  par.  23. 

^  The  book  is  dedicated  to  Bishop  Eadfrid.  ■*  Bede,  H.E.,  v.  12. 

*  Op.  cii.  ii.  297.  6  Vide  ante,  iii.  p.  104. 

'  Sy7n.  of  Durh.,  i.  chap.  xii.  s  y^^^  ^nte,  ii.  p.  458. 


DRYHTHELM  THE  ANCHORITE  123 

thought  was  our  Bishop.  His  remains  were  carried 
about  with  those  of  St.  Cuthberht,  and  were  eventu- 
ally placed  in  his  shrine.^  He  was  remembered 
among  the  saints,  his  day  being  12th  February.^ 
His  episcopate,  according  to  Symeon,  lasted  for 
sixteen  years.  If  this  be  correct,  his  death  must 
have  occurred  in  'j'^']  or  741,  according  as  we  fix 
his  consecration  in  721  or  724,  on  which  critical 
matter,  as  we  have  seen,  there  is  a  difference  between 
the  authorities.  Symeon  of  Durham  puts  it  in  740, 
William  of  Malmesbury  in  738,  and  Florence  of 
Worcester  in  739.  It  would  appear  that  in  Eadfrid's 
time  the  abbacy  and  bishopric  of  Lindisfarne  had 
ceased  to  be  held  by  the  same  person,  for  Bede  tells 
us  that  ''  Gudfrid,  a  venerable  servant  and  priest  of 
Christ,"  who  presided  over  the  brethren  at  Lindis- 
farne, where  he  was  educated,  told  him  a  story 
about  Fame  which  he  repeats.^ 

We  will  now  devote  some  paragraphs  to 
Dryhthelm  and  his  famous  visions. 

Bede  says  of  him*  that  he  was  the  head  of  a 
family  { pater- familias)^  living  in  a  district  of  the 
Northumbrians  which  is  called  Incunen^jino^um 
(doubtless  Cunningham,  situated  in  the  south  of 
Scotland,  where  the  Abbey  of  Melrose  had  posses- 
sions at  a  later  time  ^),  and  that  he  and  his  house- 
hold led  a  religious  life.  Having  fallen  sick,  he 
grew  worse  and  worse  and  presently  died  at  night- 

^  Raine's  Cuthberht,  79.  2  //^e^^  ed.  Smith,  p.  197,  note  30. 

'  Bede,  H.E.,  v.  i.  *  lb.  v.  12. 

*  See  Acta  Sanctorum,  2nd  February,  604,  606,  and  897  ;  Did.  of 
Chr.  Biog.,  ii.  230.     See  Liber  de  Melrose,  i.  72-74. 


124  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

fall,  but  early  in  the  morning  he  came  to  life  again 
and  suddenly  sat  up,  on  which  those  who  had  sat 
by  him  weeping,  fled  in  terror,  only  his  wife  remain- 
ing, although  in  great  fear.  He  bade  her  be 
comforted,  for  he  had  now  risen  again  from  the 
death  which  had  held  him,  and  had  been  permitted 
to  live  again  among  men,  but  his  subsequent  life 
was  to  be  very  different  from  his  former  one.  He 
presently  rose  and  repaired  to  the  oratory  of  the 
little  township  where  he  lived  (ad  villulae  oratorium^ 
which  the  Saxon  translation  reads  ''to  ffaere 
ciricean  \aes  tunes  ")  and  continued  to  pray  till  day- 
light, when  he  proceeded  to  divide  his  possessions 
into  three  parts,  one  for  his  wife,  a  second  for  his 
children,  and  a  third  to  be  distributed  among  the 
poor.  He  then  went  to  Melrose,  the  eldest  daughter 
of  Lindisfarne  (and  at  that  time  probably  under  the 
same  abbot),  where  he  adopted  the  tonsure  and  re- 
paired to  "a  secret  dwelling,"  and  there  lived  to  the 
end  of  his  days  in  a  state  of  great  contrition.  He 
reported  to  those  who  sought  him  what  he  had  seen 
while  out  of  the  body. 

He  was  silently  conducted,  he  said,  by  one  with 
a  shining  countenance  and  a  bright  garment.  As 
he  judged,  they  went  to  the  north  coast  until 
they  came  to  a  valley  of  great  breadth  and  depth 
and  of  infinite  length.  On  one  side  of  this  were 
dreadful  flames,  and  on  the  other  intolerable 
snow  and  hail,  which  were  flying  and  drifting 
about.  Both  places  were  full  of  men's  souls, 
which  were  tossed  from  one  side  to  the  other  by 


DRYHTHELM^S  VISION  125 

the  violence  of  the  storm,  thus  alternating  between 
scorching  heat  and  biting  cold  without  intermission. 
Dryhthelm  thought  this  must  be  hell,  but  was  told 
it  was  not  so.  When  they  reached  the  farther  end 
of  the  valley  it  began  to  grow  dusk  and  to  be  filled 
with  darkness,  and  it  presently  became  so  thick  that 
he  could  see  nothing  save  the  shape  and  garments 
of  him  that  led  him.  As  they  went  on  through  the 
shades  of  night  there  suddenly  appeared  frequent 
globes  of  black  flame,  rising  as  it  were  out  of  a 
great  pit  and  falling  back  again  into  the  same. 
There  he  was  left  alone  by  his  conductor,  who 
vanished  while  the  black  balls  of  fire  flew  hither  and 
thither,  and  he  noticed  that  the  tops  of  the  flames 
were  filled  with  human  souls  which,  like  sparks  in 
smoke,  were  sometimes  thrown  up  on  high  and 
presently  dropped  down  again,  while  an  insufferable 
stench  pervaded  the  place. 

After  standing  there  a  long  time  much  disturbed, 
he  heard  behind  him  the  voice  of  a  most  hideous 
lamentation  and  of  loud  laughing,  as  of  a  rude 
multitude  insulting  captured  enemies,  and  as  it 
came  nearer  to  him  he  saw  a  crowd  of  evil  spirits 
dragging  the  wailing  and  lamenting  souls  of  five 
human  beings  into  the  midst  of  the  darkness. 
While  the  devils  laughed,  their  victims  wept.  One 
was  shorn  like  a  clerk,  another  was  a  layman,  and 
a  third  a  woman.  The  evil  spirits  dragged  them 
down  into  the  midst  of  that  burning  pit,  and  as 
they  went  deeper  he  could  not  distinguish  between 
the  lamentation  of  the  men  and  the  laughing  of  the 


1 26  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

devils — only  a  confused  sound  reached  his  ears. 
Presently  some  of  the  dark  spirits  from  the  flaming 
abyss  rushed  at  him  on  all  sides,  and  much  distressed 
him  with  their  glaring  eyes  and  the  stinking  fire 
proceeding  from  their  mouths  and  nostrils.  They 
threatened  to  lay  hold  of  him  with  burning  tongs, 
which  they  held  in  their  hands,  yet  they  dared  not 
touch  him. 

Looking  around  for  assistance  In  this  blinding 
darkness  where  he  was  surrounded  by  enemies, 
there  appeared  behind  him  a  star  shining  amidst  the 
gloom,  which  came  rapidly  towards  him,  growing 
brighter  by  degrees,  whereupon  all  the  evil  creatures 
with  their  pincers  dispersed.  The  bright  light 
proved  to  be  his  guide,  who  then  proceeded  to  take 
him,  as  It  were,  to  the  south-east,  and  conducted 
him  out  of  the  darkness  into  an  atmosphere  of  clear 
light.  He  then  saw  a  huge  wall  before  him  of 
boundless  length  and  height.  In  which  there  was  no 
door  or  window  or  stair.  But  as  soon  as  they 
reached  the  wall  they  were,  as  It  were,  lifted  to  the 
top  of  It.  Within  was  a  vast  and  delightful  field, 
so  full  of  fragrant  flowers  that  Its  odour  at  once 
dispersed  the  dreadful  stench  that  had  pervaded 
the  dark  furnaces.  .  .  .  The  light  of  the  place 
was  greater  than  that  of  day  or  of  the  sun  at 
meridian  height.  In  this  field  were  Innumerable 
assemblies  dressed  In  white,  and  many  companies 
seated  and  rejoicing.  Dryhthelm  thought  this 
must  be  heaven,  but  his  conductor  said  it  was 
not  so. 


DRYHTHELM'S  VISION  127 

Having  passed  these  mansions  of  blessed  spirits 
he  saw  a  much  more  beautiful  light,  and  also  heard 
most  sweet  voices  of  people  singing,  and  a  fragrance 
far  exceeding  that  he  had  noted  before.  As  he 
was  hoping  they  might  go  in  there,  his  guide 
stopped  and  then  turned  round  and  led  him  back 
again  by  the  way  they  had  come. 

His  conductor  then  explained  what  it  all  meant. 
The  valley  with  its  two  flanks  of  burning  heat  and 
freezing  cold  was  the  place  where  souls  were  tried 
and  punished  who  had  failed  to  confess  and  amend 
the  crimes  they  had  committed,  and  had  post- 
poned repentance  till  the  point  of  death,  and  thus 
departed  from  the  body.  Those  who,  even  at 
death's  door,  confessed  and  repented,  would  all 
reach  heaven  at  the  Day  of  Judgment,  but  many 
would  be  relieved  even  before  then  by  the  prayers, 
alms,  and  fasting  of  the  living,  and  more  especially 
by  the  celebrating  of  Masses.  The  dark  and  stink- 
ing pit,  on  the  contrary,  was  the  mouth  of  hell  itself, 
from  which  whosoever  fell  would  never  be  delivered 
throughout  eternity.  Similarly,  the  flowery  meadow 
he  had  seen  was  the  place  where  those  were  put 
who  had  done  good  works  in  the  world,  but  not 
sufficient  to  entitle  them  to  heaven.  Eventually, 
however,  they  would  come  thither,  and  at  the  Day 
of  Judgment  they  would  see  Christ  and  enter  into 
the  joys  of  His  kingdom;  while  those  who  were 
perfect  in  every  deed,  word,  and  thought  would 
go  immediately  to  that  place  of  effulgent  light  and 
sweet  sinorinor  he  had  seen. 

o        o 


128  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

"As  for  you,"  he  said,  "who  are  returning  to 
live  among  men,  you  also,  if  you  study  to  direct 
your  speech  and  behaviour  in  righteousness,  shall 
after  death  have  a  residence  among  these  joyful 
troops  of  blessed  souls.  When  I  left  you  for  awhile, 
it  was  to  ascertain  what  was  to  be  your  fate." 

Dryhthelm  tells  us  he  was  not  at  all  anxious  to 
leave  that  delightful  place,  but  he  dared  not  ask  his 
guide  any  more  questions,  and  on  a  sudden,  he  knew 
not  how,  he  found  himself  again  alive  among  men.^ 
In  this  translation  I  have  almost  entirely  followed 
the  Rev.  J.  Stevenson,  which  I  could  not  improve 
upon. 

Such  was  the  story  which  Dryhthelm  told,  and 
which  he  no  doubt  believed.  Bede  says  he  did 
not  tell  his  story  to  everybody,  but  only  to  those 
who  might  profit  from  it.  Such  tales,  as  we  have 
seen,  were  the  ready  products  of  the  excessive 
asceticism  of  the  anchorites,  which  produced  a  wild 
imagination  and  fantastic  dreams. 

Near  Dryhthelm's  cell  lived  a  monk  named 
Haemgils,  eminent  for  his  good  works.  "  He  is 
still  living^  a  solitary  life,"  says  Bede,"  in  the  island 
of  Ireland,  supporting  his  declining  age  with  coarse 
bread  and  cold  water."  It  was  from  him  that  the 
latter  heard  the  story,  as  told  by  Dryhthelm  himself. 
Haemgils  is  commemorated  among  the  hermits  in 
the  Liber  Vitae. 

Dryhthelm  also  reported  his  vision  to  the  saintly 

1  Bede,  H.E.,  v.  12.  2  ^-^  in  731. 


DRYHTHELM'S  FAME  129 

scholar,  King  Aldfrid,  and  it  was  at  his  request  that 
he  entered  the  monastery  of  Melrose  and  adopted 
the  tonsure.  At  that  time  ^^ilwald  or  Ethel wald, 
who  afterwards  became  bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  was 
abbot  there. 

Dryhthelm  was  assigned  a  secluded  place  near 
the  monastery  where  he  might  indulge  in  continual 
prayer.  This  was  near  the  river,  into  which  he 
used  often  to  go  down  and  completely  submerge 
himself,  remaining  there  as  long  as  he  could  endure, 
and  meanwhile  saying  prayers.  He  sometimes 
remained  in  the  water  up  to  his  waist  or  his  neck, 
and  when  he  came  out  he  did  not  take  off  his  cold 
or  frozen  garments  till  they  grew  warm  and  dried 
on  his  body.  When  in  the  winter  those  who  be- 
held the  broken  pieces  of  ice  floating  about,  which 
he  had  made  when  he  took  "his  dip,"  would 
say,  *'  It  is  wonderful.  Brother  Dryhthelm,  that  you 
are  able  to  bear  such  violent  cold."  He  merely 
answered,  for  he  was  a  man  of  but  swiple  and  in- 
different wits,  **  I  have  been  still  colder."  Thus,  says 
Bede,  he  continued  to  subdue  his  aged  body  with 
daily  fasting  till  he  was  called  away.^  MSS.  D  and 
E  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  put  Dryhthelm's 
vision  in  693.  The  Annates  Xantenses^  which 
contain  some  English  entries,  put  it  in  671  ;  this, 
says  Plummer,  is  too  early.  Roger  of  Wendover 
dates  it  in  699.^  It  must  have  been  some  little  time 
before  the  death  of  Aldfrid  (705),  as  the  latter  used 

^  H.E.^  chap.  xii.  2  pertz,  ii.  220. 

^  Plummer,  Bede^  ii.  294. 
VOL.  ni. — 9 


1 30  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

to  go  very  often  {saepissime)  to  hear  Dryhthelm  at 
Melrose. 

i^lfric  wrote  an  Anglo  -  Saxon  homily  on 
Dryhthelm.^  Alcuin  also  wrote  some  lines  in  which 
he  versified  part  of  the  story  of  his  vision.  Here 
is  a  sample  of  them  : — 

"Tunc  mihi  post  tergum  fulsit  quasi  Stella  per  umbras, 
Quae  magis  accrescens  properansque  fugaverat  hostes 
Dux  erat  ille  meus  veniens  cum  luce  repente; 
Cujus  in  adventu  daemones  alvi."^ 

His  name  is  mentioned  among  those  of  the 
anchorites  in  the  Liber  Vitae  of  Durham. 

Plummer^  has  an  interesting  note  on  this  type 
of  vision,  in  which  the  principal  feature  is  the 
existence  of  a  place  of  torment  of  freezing  cold  as 
well  as  one  of  scorching  heat.  Bede  himself  ac- 
cepted this  view  ;  thus  he  writes  : — 

"  Ignibus  aeternae  nigris  loca  plena  gehennae, 
Frigora  mixta  simul  ferventibis  algida  flammis. 

Non  sentitur  ibi  quidquam  nisi  frigora,  flammae 
Foetor  et  ingenti  complet  putredine  nares."  * 

In  another  place  Bede  traces  the  notion  to  the 
passage  In  Luke,  where  he  says,  "  there  shall  be 
weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth,"  and  glossed  it 
thus:  ''The  weeping  comes  from  the  heat,  and  the 
gnashing  of  teeth  from  the  cold,  thus  proving  a 
double   hell  {gehenna),  one  of  great  heat  and  the 

^  Ed.  Thorpe,  ii.  348. 

2  "  Carmen  de  Pont.,"  Historians  of  the  Church  of  York,  Rolls 
Series,  vv.  953-955. 

'Bede,  0pp.,  i.  pp.  101-102.     Plummer,  ii.  296. 
*  Bede,  de  Die  Judicii,  Opera,  i.  101-102. 


THE  ABBEY   OF  CRAIKE  131 

other  of  great  cold."^  In  one  of  Wulfstan's 
homilies^  we  read:  **  There  sometimes  eyes  weep 
immoderately  by  reason  of  the  heat  of  the  furnace, 
sometimes  teeth  chatter  from  the  cold." 

Plummer  notes  how  Claudio,  in  Measure  for 
Measure,  iii.  i,  says: — 

"  To  bathe  in  fiery  floods,  or  to  reside 
In  thrilling  regions  of  thick-ribbed  ice." 

We  will  now  turn  to  a  small  corner  of  our  sub- 
ject which  receives  no  illumination  from  Bede,  and 
was  overlooked  by  him.  Lindisfarne  had  several 
cells  or  subordinate  houses  in  addition  to  Melrose  : 
St.  Balthere's  or  Baldred's  at  Tiningham,  Cununga- 
ceastre  or  Chester-le-Street,  Norham,  Gainsford, 
and  Craike  (near  York).  Craike  is  described  as 
a  village  on  a  commanding  outlier  of  the  Wolds, 
which  towers  above  the  country  formerly  occupied 
by  the  forest  of  Galtres.  Mr.  Thomas  Arnold 
has  given  some  good  reasons  for  treating  it 
as  the  abbey  apostrophised  by  ^thelwulf  In  his 
interesting  poem  '*de  Abbatibus,"  which  was 
dedicated  to  Bishop  Ecgberht  (802-829).  It  is 
not  quite  certain,  however.  In  that  poem  he  tells 
us  that  when  King  Ecgfrid  was  killed  by  the  Picts, 
his  son  Aldfrid  succeeded  him,  and  was  in  turn 
succeeded  by  his  son  Osred.  His  turbulent  and 
dissipated  life  I  have  previously  described.  Among 
his  evil  deeds,  he  killed  some  of  his  great  nobles  and 

*  Bede  on  Luke  xiii.  28. 
2  Vide  ed.  Napier,  138. 


1 3  2   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

drove  others  into  monasteries/  One  of  them,  says 
yEthelwulf,  was  Eanmund,  who  abandoned  the  world 
and  adopted  a  religious  life,  and  with  some  other 
nobles  entered  a  monastery.  We  are  told  in  the 
anonymous  History  of  St.  Cuthberht  that  King 
Ecgfrid  gave  the  latter  the  hill  and  three  miles 
round  it  at  Craike,  that  he  might  have  a  residence 
"mansio"  to  stop  at  when  he  went  to  York  or 
returned  from  it.^  There  apparently  Eanmund 
built  a  monastery  for  himself  and  his  friends. 
This  was  during  the  episcopate  of  Bishop  Eadfrid, 
(i.e.  698-721).  The  bishop  gave  him  pious  in- 
structions and  assigned  a  teacher  to  the  community. 
Eanmund  now  sent  to  St.  Ecgberht,  the  famous 
missionary  who,  as  we  have  seen,  converted  the 
Columban  Church  to  orthodoxy,  asking  him  to  con- 
secrate an  altar  for  his  monks ;  he  refers  to  the 
altar  as  the  sacred  table  of  God  [mensa  sacrata 
Dei).  Ecgberht  sent  him  a  kindly  message,  and 
told  him  that  he  had  seen  in  a  vision  a  certain 
hill  on  which  Eanmund  was  to  build  a  chapel. 
The  latter  thereupon  proceeded  to  build  it  and 
to  cover  it  with  lead — 

"  Exterius  tabulas  perfundens  tegmine  plumbi  " — 

and  in  it  was  duly  placed  the  altar.  The  bishop 
now  wrote  him  another  letter,  in  which  he  con- 
trasts the  days  when  robbers  occupied  the  hill,  with 
the  better  times  in  which  they  were  then  living, 
i^thelwulf   in   his  poem  describes  the  life  of  the 

1  Symeon  of  Durham^  ed.  Arnold,  i.  p.  268. 
^  Op.  cit.  xxxvii. 


THE  ARTIST-MONK  ULTAN  133 

monks  there  as  marked  by  fervour  and  zeal,  and 
speaks  of  its  parti-coloured  statue  of  the  Virgin, 
with  its  white  vesture.^ 

He  also  refers  to  one  of  Eanmund's  pupils,  a 
Scot,  named  Ultan,  who  was  a  priest  and  skilled 
in  illuminating  books.^  He  was  also  a  zealous 
teacher  and  lived  to  be  an  old  man.  Mr.  Gammach 
says  he  might  be  the  Ultan  or  Ulton  who  had  a 
chapel  in  Valay  in  the  Scottish  Hebrides,  and 
whose  arm,  enclosed  in  a  silver  shrine,  was  served 
by  a  distinguished  member  of  the  clan  of  the 
O'Donnells  in  the  island  of  Sanday,  off  the  Mull 
of  Cantyre.  This  seems  to  me  very  doubtful,  as 
the  name  was  a  common  one.  I  have  suororested 
that  he  may  have  been  one  of  the  illuminators  of 
the  Lindisfarne  Gospels.  His  death-day  in  the 
Calendar  was  August  the  8th,  but  Colgan  puts 
it  on  January  the  I7th.^  Miracles  were  performed 
at  his  grave,  while  a  portion  of  his  relics  are  said 
to  have  relieved  a  monk  who  was  at  death's  door. 

The  description  of  it  in  the  poem  is  picturesque. 
We  read  that  when  his  body  had  long  been  con- 
sumed in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  it  pleased  the 
monks  to  raise  their  brother's  ashes  from  the  tomb, 

*  "Talibus  exornata  bonis  in  vestibus  albis 

Inclita,  sed  vario  comptim,  permixta  colore, 
A  dextris  Virgo  et  Genitrix  adstare  videtur, 
Rectoris,  caelos  terras  qui  et  numine  portat " 
(^thelwulf's  poem,  Sym.  of  Durhatn^  ed.  Arnold,  i.  273). 

*  "Comtis  qui  potuit  notis  ornare  libellos 

Atque  apicum  speciem  viritim  sic  reddit  amoenam, 
Hac  arte  ut  nullus  possit  se  aequare  modernus 
Scriptor  "  {ib.  p.  274). 
'  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.^  iv.  p.  1060. 


1 34  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

and  place  them  with  washen  bones  in  the  interior 
of  a  sepulchre  built  in  the  marble  of  the  sacred 
temple.  The  consecrated  bones  of  the  pious  father 
were  brought  forth,  they  were  reft  from  the  rich  store 
of  the  earth's  bowels.  Hence,  when  the  bones 
had  been  washed,  and  pure  linen  sheets  were  bear- 
ing his  remains  beneath  the  light  of  day,  suddenly 
two  birds  approached  and  alighted  upon  the  sheets. 
Their  backs  glistened,  awe-inspiring,  with  varied 
tints  ;  chanting  hymns  with  their  beaks,  they  sweetly 
sing  in  harmony  to  the  delight  of  all,  while  with 
their  wings  they  veiled  the  skull  of  the  Saint.  So 
all  day  long  they  ceased  not  to  tend  the  holy  bones, 
and  pour  forth  songs  in  beauteous  strains,  until  the 
light  of  the  sun  had  drawn  up  all  moisture  and  had 
left  the  remains  dry.  (The  translation  of  this 
paragraph  in  the  original  baffled  me,  and  I  owe 
it  to  the  kindness  of  my  cherished  friend.  Sir  E. 
Kenyon.) 

We  are  next  told  of  a  certain  priest,  who  was  a 
great  benefactor  of  the  House,  named  Fridegils,  and 
of  a  very  pious  brother  named  Cuicuin,  probably 
a  Celt  who  was  a  skilful  smith  and  a  very  holy 
man,  and  who  mingled  the  singing  of  psalms 
with  his  noisy  occupation.^ 

*  "  Ferrea  qui  domitans  potuit  formare  metalla, 
Diversisque  modis  sapiens  incude  subactum 
Malleus  in  ferrum  peditat  stridente  camino. 

Hinc  matutinis  completis  quam  bene  Psalmis 
Continue  insonuit  percussis  cudo  metallis 
Malleus  et  vacuas  volitans  cum  verberat  auras. 
Jam  coenam  fratrum  pedilans  caldarius  ornat " 

(Arnold's  Symeon  of  Durhain^  i.  276-7). 


THE  MONK  MERCHDOF  135 

When  he  died,  a  choir  of  angels  came  to  escort 
him  to  heaven,  and  i^thuin,^  a  monk,  commended 
his  soul  to  God  : — 

.  .  .  "animam  Domino  commendat  in  astra." 

^thelwulf  then  tells  the  quaint  story  of  a  certain 
Merchdof,  who  had  become  a  monk  after  living  in 
the  world,  and  who,  like  Dryhthelm,  when  very  ill, 
claimed  that  he  had  temporarily  died  and  come  to 
life  again,  and  had  seen  in  the  other  world  his  young 
sons  who  had  died  in  infancy  but  "after  baptism." 
They  went  to  meet  him  and  accompanied  him 
before  the  Judge  at  the  Judgment.  He  asked 
on  his  knees  to  be  permitted  to  enter,  when  the 
Judge  reproached  him  for  his  former  infidelity  to  his 
wife,  and  bade  him  seek  her  and  solicit  her  pardon. 
He  accordingly  did  so,  but  she  instantly  ordered 
him  away.  She  did  this  in  strident  terms.^  Then 
when  he  humiliated  himself  to  the  extreme  point 
of  licking  the  ground  with  his  tongue  before  her, 
she    relented   so  far  as   to  ask   that  he   might  be 

^  Mr.  Arnold  suggests  that  this  may  have  been  yE(5a  (Etha) 
the  anchorite,  whose  death  at  Craike  in  767  is  mentioned  in  the 
Historia  Regiim.  The  terminations  of  many  Saxon  names,  he 
justly  adds,  were  variable.  Thus  Ceola  for  Ceolric,  and  Saexa, 
Cutha,  and  Siga  for  Saexwulf,  Cuthwine,  and  Sigwulf  {pp.  cit.  p.  277, 
note  a). 

•     "  Cur  tu  stulte,  fidem  corruptus  corpore,  mente, 
Irrita  vota  gerens,  copulam  conjungere  natis 
Ausus  eras,  thalamis  maculans  tua  membra  secundis, 
Foedera  cum  manibus  Domini  per  nomina  summi 
Ante  diem  mortis  firmando  gessit  uterque, 
Post  mortem  alterius  maneat  quod  criminis  expers  ? 
Obstruso  tacuit  non  laeti  pectoris  ore" 

(Arnold's  Sytneon  of  Durham^  p.  279). 


1 36  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

sent  to  the  flames  of  purgatory.  At  the  entreaty 
of  her  children,  however,  she  at  length  consented  to 
his  soul  returning  again  to  the  body  in  order  to  do 
its  penance  on  earth  rather  than  in  that  danger- 
ous place.  His  spirit  accordingly  returned  to  his 
body  again. 

"Pervenit  ad  corpus,  cunctis  mirantibus  ilium 
Vivere  post  mortem  !  .  .  ." 

He  now  turned  over  an  entirely  new  leaf,  led  a 
most  penitential  life,  and  died  a  good  death. ^  The 
extraordinary  part  of  all  this  is'  that  the  whole 
narrative  was  purely  a  subjective  delusion,  and  that 
the  sinner  in  telling  the  story  should  make  such 
a  public  confession  of  his  previously  disguised 
peccadilloes  to  his  very  human  wife.  So  much  for 
some  of  the  early  inmates  at  Craike. 

Meanwhile,  Eanmund,  the  founder  of  the 
monastery,  died,  and  the  brethren  buried  him  inside 
the  church.  He  is  mentioned  in  the  Liber  Vitae 
among  the  abbots. 

Eorpwine  was  chosen  as  abbot  in  his  place. 
The  poet  speaks  of  him  in  high  terms  as  an 
excellent  priest,  a  diligent  scholar,  a  prudent  and 
strenuous  administrator,  indulgent  to  others  but 
severe  on  himself.  His  name  also  occurs  thus  among 
the  abbots  in  the  Liber  Vitae — "  Eorpuini pbr'' 

I  do  not  propose   to  carry  the  history  of  these 

^     "  Cumque  suis  medicans  frater  cataplasma  salutis 
Vulneribus  fecit,  purgatus  corpora  linquit 
Atque  suae  comtus  sponsae  penetralia  comtae 
Creditur  ut  laetus  meruisset  visere  comta" 

(Arnold's  SyrneoJi  of  Durhain^  p.  279). 


THE  EXPULSION  OF  THE  MONKS  OF  lONA    137 

abbots  any  further,  their  later  story  being  out  of 
the  range  of  my  present  subject. 

Let  us  therefore  turn  elsewhere.  We  saw  how 
Adamnan,  the  Abbot  of  lona,  was  expelled  from 
that  monastery  by  the  monks,  who  could  not 
tolerate  his  acceptance  of  the  Roman  tonsure  and 
the  Roman  method  of  celebrating  Easter,  and  how  he 
went  to  Ireland  and  was  there  successful  in  causing 
the  Church  of  the  Northern  Irish  to  conform 
to  the  orthodox  practice,  as  that  of  the  southern 
province  had  previously  done.^  Bede  does  not 
mention  the  expulsion,  but  says  he  sailed  to  Ireland 
to  preach  to  the  people,  etc.  He  presently  returned 
to  lona  and  earnestly  inculcated  the  observance  of  the 
Catholic  Easter,  but  in  vain.  He  died  shortly  after, 
and  before  the  next  year  came  round;  "for  the 
Divine  goodness  so  ordained  it  that  he  who  was  a 
great  lover  of  peace  and  unity  should  be  taken  away 
to  everlastinor  life  so  that  he  mio-ht  not  be  oblicred 
on  the  return  of  Eastertide  to  have  to  face  still  more 
discord  with  those  who  would  not  conform."^  The 
feeling  on  the  matter  now  became  very  strong,  and 
created  a  schism  in  the  community  at  Lindisfarne,  and 
led  to  the  appointment  of  rival  abbots.  For  the  first 
time  since  the  foundation  of  the  abbey  by  Columba, 
a  monk  of  a  strange  family,  and  not  a  descendant  of 
Conall  Gulban,  and  the  tribe  of  the  Saint,  became 
abbot,  namely  Conmael,  son  of  Failbhe,  of  the  tribe 
of  Airgialla  in  Ireland,  who  presided  over  the  new 
communion,  and  who  died   three   years  after  and 

^  yi«/(?,  ii.  310  and  311.  ^  Bede^v.  1$. 


138  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

was  succeeded  by  Ceode,  bishop  of  lona,  who  died 
in  712,  and  he  by  Dorbeni,  who  died  on  the  28th 
October  713.  All  this  went  on  while  the  other  and 
more  powerful  section  followed  the  old  custom  of 
the  Church  under  Duncadh,^  and  was  patronised  by 
the  Pictish  King  Nechtan. 

Presently,  however,  moved  by  the  persuasion 
of  Abbot  Ceolfrid  of  Jarrow,  who  wrote  him  a 
long  letter,  Nechtan  changed  his  view  and  sided 
with  the  Roman  party.  He  then  called  upon 
the  others  to  conform  too.  This  was  apparently 
obeyed  by  the  various  monasteries  among  Nechtan's 
people,  except  the  larger  part  of  the  community  itself 
at  lona.  The  King  then  proceeded  to  expel  them, 
and  they  fled  beyond  Drumalban  (the  great  moun- 
tain barrier  of  central  Scotland  known  as  "  the 
Mounth  "),  where  the  various  communities  among  the 
Northern  Picts  also  refused  to  conform.  This  con- 
version was  in  710.^  Six  years  later  St.  Ecgberht 
came  from  Ireland  (where  he  had  been  living  a  life 
of  great  asceticism)  ^  with  the  purpose  and  intention 
of  healing  the  schism.  According  to  Bede,  he  was 
welcomed  even  by  the  schismatics.  He  was  an 
agreeable  preacher  and  acted  consistently  with 
his  preaching,  and  was  willingly  heard  by  all  and 
presendy  won  them  over.  "The  monks  of  Hii," 
says  Bede,  "  by  the  instruction  of  Ecgberht,  adopted 

^  Skene's  Celtic  Scotland^  ii.  175.  '  Vide  ante^  ii.  316. 

'  Plummer  says  he  is  called  "  Ichtbricht  Epscop"  in  an  Irish 
document  containing  an  account  of  a  Synod  at  Birra  (Parsonstown) 
in  which  the  so-called  "  Cain  Adamnam  "  (Law  of  Adomnain)  was 
promulgated.     It  was  held  in  696  (see  Plummer,  Bede,  ii.  285). 


ST.  ECGBERHT  AT  ION  A  139 

the  Catholic  rites  under  Abbot  Duncadh,  about 
eighty  years  after  they  had  sent  Bishop  Aidan  to 
preach  to  the  nation  of  the  Angles."^  This  was 
in  716.  The  conversion  was  not  complete,  how- 
ever, for  Tighernach,  who  specially  mentions  Abbot 
Duncadh  s  adhesion,  adds  that  "  Faelchu  Mac 
Dorbeni  took  the  chair  of  Columba  in  his  eighty- 
seventh  year,  on  Saturday,  August  the  29th,  716." 
This  old  gentleman  doubtless  presided  over  the 
ultra-conservatives  among  the  monks.  Tighernach 
records  the  death  of  Abbot  Duncadh  in  the  following 
year.  On  his  death  Faelchu  became  sole  abbot,  and 
thus  the  schism  still  continued.  Thereupon  we  read 
that  in  717  King  Nechtan  drove  the  whole  family 
of  lona  across  Drumalban.  This  brought  to  an 
end  the  primacy  of  lona  over  the  churches  and 
monasteries  of  the  Southern  Picts.^ 

St.  Ecgberht  died  at  lona  on  Easter  Day  (April 
24th),  729,  after  performing  the  solemnity  of 
the  Mass,  "and  thus  he  finished  (or  rather  never 
ceased  to  celebrate),  with  our  Lord,  the  Apostles, 
and  the  other  citizens  of  heaven,  the  joy  of  that 
greatest  festival  which  he  had  begun  with  the 
brethren  whom  he  had  converted  to  the  grace  of 
unity."  ^ 

Leaving  the  diocese  of  Lindisfarne  and  the 
neighbouring  districts  of  Scotland,  let  us  now  turn 
to  Hexham.  On  the  death  of  St.  Wilfrid  in  709  he 
was  succeeded  as  bishop  there  by  his  confidential 

*  Bede^  v.  9,  22.  "^  Skene's  Celtic  Scotland^  ii.  175-178. 

'  Bede^  v.  22. 


1 40  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

friend  Acca,  who  had  already  been  its  abbot  by  his 
own  appointment,  and  whom  he  had  already  pointed 
out  as  the  successor  he  should  like  to  follow  him 
as  bishop.  He  had  been  brought  up  and  in- 
structed under  Bishop  Bosa  at  York,  and  accom- 
panied Wilfrid  on  his  journey  to  Friesland  and 
then  to  Rome,  where  they  lived  together  for  a 
considerable  time.  **  There  he  learnt  many  things 
concerning  the  government  of  the  Holy  Church, 
which  he  could  not  have  learnt  at  home."  On 
their  return  in  705  Wilfrid  confided  to  him  an 
account  of  the  vision  he  claimed  to  have  seen  at 
Meaux.  When  passing  through  Canterbury  on  his 
way  to  Northumbria,  Acca  took  with  him  a  certain 
Maban  (who  had  learnt  Church  music  from  the 
disciples  of  St.  Gregory),  and  whose  name  points 
him  out  as  a  Welshman.  His  function  was  to 
teach  Gregorian  music  at  Hexham,  and  Acca  kept 
him  there  twelve  years.  Bede  says  he  was  instructed 
to  teach  chanting  and  to  introduce  new  ecclesiastical 
chants  at  Hexham.^  Acca  himself,  according  to 
Bede,  was  an  expert  singer,  as  well  as  a  scholar.^ 

He  greatly  adorned  and  enlarged  his  church, 
and  procured  relics  of  the  apostles  and  martyrs 
to  enrich  it  in  order  to  sanctify  the  altars  in 
the    various    chapels    {portici)    which    girdled    its 

^  Bede,  v.  20. 

^  Richard  of  Hexham  exalts  him  in  a  number  of  superlatives 
thus  :  "  Sanctus  Acca^  presbyter,  vir  strenuissimus^  coram  Deo  et 
hominibus  magnificus,  cantator  peritissimus,  in  Uteris  sacris  doctis- 
simus,  in  Catholicaefidei confessione  castissimus^inecdesiasticaequoque 
institutionis  regulis  solertissimus  "  {Church  of  Hexham^  5  and  32). 


BISHOP  ACCA  141 

walls.  He  doubtless  completed  the  three  churches 
dedicated  to  SS.  Mary,  Peter,  and  Michael,  which 
Wilfrid  had  begun.  The  last  one  was  in  memory 
of  the  Saint  who  visited  Wilfrid  at  Meaux.^  "  He 
also  collected  the  histories  of  the  sufferings  of  the 
martyrs,  with  other  coexistent  writings,  and  built 
a  large  and  noble  library,  and  brought  together 
suitable  holy  vessels,  lights,"  etc.^ 

He  was  most  observant  in  the  rules  of  eccles- 
iastical institutions,  "  nor  will  he  ever  indeed 
cease  being  so,"  says  Bede,  ''  till  he  shall  receive 
the  rewards  of  his  pious  devotion."  This  phrase 
shows  he  was  still  bishop  when  Bede  wrote  his 
history  in  731. 

In  the  year  732  he  retired  from  his  see.^ 
What  was  the  actual  reason  for  this  no  one 
knows.  His  character  and  reputation  will  not 
allow  the  supposition  that  he  was  guilty  of  any 
misconduct.  Prior  Richard  suoraests  that  he 
went  from  Hexham  to  re-establish  the  see  at 
Whitherne  (which  was  restored  about  this  time), 
and    which    I    think  very   probable.^     Raine    sug- 


^  Richard  of  Hexham^  xxxiii.  i8.  *  /<^.  p.  31. 

^  lb.  p.  34.  In  MSS.  D,  E,  and  F  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle 
this  is  dated  in  733. 

*  Richard  of  Hexham^  p.  35.  According  to  Bishop  Forbes  we 
have,  in  the  Scottish  Kalendar  of  Dempster,  under  the  date  Auj^j^ust  6, 
the  entry  :  "  In  Galloway,  the  day  of  '  Blessed  Acta  '  {sic).,  Bishop  of 
Candida  Casa,"  while  in  that  of  Camerarius  we  read  :  "  On  January  16  : 
Blessed  Accas,  Actas,  Areas,  Bishop  of  Hexham  in  England,  and  of 
Candida  Casa  in  Scotland."  Skene,  having  regard  to  the  dedica- 
tion of  one  of  its  churches,  says  that  he  may  have  founded  one  of 
the  early  ecclesiastical  settlements  at  St.  Andrews  (Forbes, 
Kalendar  of  Scottish  Saints ^  261). 


142   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

gests  that  It  may  have  been  from  old  age  that 
he  withdrew.  It  is  significant,  however,  that  his 
retirement  and  that  of  King  Ceolwulf  should  be 
mentioned  in  the  same  paragraph  in  the  supple- 
ment to  Bede.  Mr.  Raine  says  very  truly  that  if 
Acca  had  left  Hexham  in  disgrace  he  would  not 
surely  have  been  regarded  as  a  saint  and  with  so 
much  veneration,  and  the  brethren  of  that  monas- 
tery would  not  have  allowed  his  bones  to  remain 
in  their  monastery.  Stubbs  connects  his  departure 
with  the  metropolitan  jurisdiction  of  Ecgberht  at 
York,  then  recently  enacted. 

Symeon  of  Durham  says  he  died  on  the  19th  of 
September  740  ;  ^  Professor  Stubbs  says  on  October 
the  20th,  740.^  His  death  therefore  took  place 
some  years  after  he  had  ceased  to  be  bIshop,and  his 
successor,  Fruidberht,  or  Fridberht,  was  consecrated 
in  735,^  so  that  he  clearly  did  not  recover  his  see.* 

The  best  testimony  to  his  character  and  gifts  is 
to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  he  was  such  a  close 
friend  of  Bede.^ 

1  Hist.  Reg.,  ch.  36.  '  Diet.  ofChr.  Biog.,  i.  16. 

^  Plummer's  Bede,  i.  360. 

*  The  church  of  Aycliffe,  in  Durham,  is  apparently  dedicated  to 
him  or  to  St.  Andrew.  See  Miss  Arnold  Foster,  Studies  in  Church 
Dedications,  iii.  38. 

^  Bede  styles  him  "carissime"  {0pp.,  i.  202);  *' dilectissime" 
{ib.  i.  204;  viii.  265;  x.  2);  "  dilectissime  antistitum"  (i.  198; 
viii.  78  and  263)  ;  "  amantissime  antistes "  (vii.  2) ;  "  aman- 
tissime  pontificum"  (viii.  162);  "dilectissime  et  desiderantissime 
omnium  qui  in  terris  morantur  antistitum "  (vii.  369) ;  "  sancte 
antistes"  (i.  314);  " reverendissime  antistes"  (viii.  360);  "tua 
dulcissima  sanctitas "  (x.  268).  He  addresses  his  letters  to 
him  as  "Domino  in  Christo  dilectissimo"  (i.  198);  "Domino 
.  .  .  nimium  desiderantissimo "   (x.  268);   "Domino   beatissimo  et 


BISHOP  ACCA  143 

It  was  by  the  persuasion  of  Acca  that  ^ddi 
wrote  the  life  of  their  common  master,  St.  Wilfrid, 
and  the  book  itself  was  dedicated  jointly  to  Acca 
and  Tatberht,  Abbot  of  Ripon,  and  the  brethren 
there.^  A  greater  proof  of  his  fame  and  character 
is  the  fact  that  Bede  should  have  dedicated 
more  than  one  of  his  own  works  to  him,  among 
others  the  Hexameron,  which,  as  Stubbs  says, 
seems  to  show  they  had  been  friends  since  709.^ 

He  also  dedicated  to  him  the  hymn  on  the 
Day  of  Judgment,  sometimes  attributed  to  Alcuin. 
The  concluding  lines  cited  by  Plummer  are  con- 
clusive : — 

"  En  tua  jussa  sequens  cecini  tibi  carmina  flendi, 
Tu  tua  fac  promissa,  precor,  sermone  fideli 
Commmendans  precibus  Christo  modo,  meque  canentem. 
Vive  Deo  felix,  et  die,  vale,  fratribus  almis 
Acca  pater,  trepidi  et  pavidi  reminiscere  servi 
Meque  tuis  Christo  precibus  commenda  benignis."  ^ 

The  dedication  of  Bede's  De  Templo  presents  an 
ambiguity,  since  while  it  is  commended  to  Acca 
in  the  Merton  MS.  ;   in  MS.   Phillips,  9428,  it  is 

intima  semper  caritate  venerando"  (i.  203).  Plummer,  ii.  p.  329. 
Acca,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  only  letter  which  he  wrote 
to  Bede,  which  has  been  preserved,  addresses  him  in  turn  as 
"  dilectissime  "  (x.  267).  As  Mr.  Plummer  (from  whom  I  have  bor- 
rowed this  note)  says:  "These  contrasts  illustrate  the  confusion 
existing  in  the  Latin  of  this  period  between  the  active  and  passive 
participles  "  (Plummer,  ii.  329). 

^  See  Historians  of  the  Church  of  York^  p.  i. 

*  He  also   dedicated  to  him  Commentaries  on  Genesis,  Samuel, 

Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Mark,  Luke,  the  Acts,  the  tracts  de  mansionibus 

filiorwn  Israel  and  De  eo  quod  ait  Isaias,  etc.  ;  all  of  which  were 

written  at  his  instance.     Plummer's  Bede,  i.  xlix.,  note  2  ;   Diet,  of 

Chr.  Biog.,  i.  16. 

^  Plummer,  Bede^  i.  cliii  and  cliv. 


144  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

dedicated  to  Nothelm/  Bede  also  acknowledged 
his  obligations  to  him  for  materials  supplied  for  his 
Ecclesiastical  History} 

One  letter,  as  I  have  said,  is  extant  written  by 
him  to  Bede,  whom  he  addresses  as  '' Reverendissimo 
in  Christo  fratri  et  consacerdote  Bedae,  presbyter o.'' 
In  this  he  presses  him  to  complete  his  commentaries 
on  Mark  by  undertaking  those  on  Luke  also.  He 
also  quotes  in  it  from  one  or  two  classical  writers, 
as  well  as  from  the  Latin  Fathers  SS.  Augustine 
and  Ambrose,  and  ends  by  pressing  his  friend 
when  he  had  done  Mark  to  write  on  the  first 
two  Gospels,  and,  inter  alia,  quotes  a  depressing 
but  philosophic  phrase,  ''Nihil  est  dictum  quod  non 
sit  dictum  prius''^  In  his  reply,  in  which  he 
consents  to  do  what  his  friend  wishes,  Bede  speaks 
of  himself  as  being  Acca's  scribe  {dictator^  notary, 
and  librarian. 

Acca  was  buried  in  the  cemetery  at  Hexham, 
near  the  wall  at  the  east  end.  Prior  Richard  says 
'*  in  secretarium,"  i.e.  in  the  sanctuary  in  which  the 
high  altar  stood.* 

Two  crosses  of  stone,  wondrously  carved,  one  at 
his  head  and  the  other  at  his  feet,  marked  his  grave, 
of  which  one,  which  was  placed  at  the  head,  bore  an 
inscription  stating  he  was  buried  there.^ 

^  Plummer,  Bede,  i.  xlix,  note  2. 

2  H.E.,  iii.  13  ;  iv.  14  ;  see  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.,  i.  16. 

^  Richard  of  Ilexhain,  33  and  34,  note. 

*  Symeon,  or  his  interpolator,  however,  says  :  "  Corpus  vero  ejus 
ad  orientatem  plagajn  extra  parietem  ecclesiae  Haugustaldensis" 
(ed.  Arnold,  ii.  33). 

^  lb. 


The  Acca  Cross. 


[  I'oi.  Iff. ,  /achig />.  144. 


BISHOP  ACCA^S  CROSS  145 

It  has  been  generally  accepted,  and  seems 
hardly  doubtful,  that  one  of  these  two  stones  is  the 
one  which  was  found  when  the  chancel  of  the 
present  church  was  built.  "  If  beauty  of  design 
and  execution  would  prove  its  identity,  we  may 
safely  say  it  is  the  same.  Three  of  the  sides  are 
sculptured,  and  the  fourth  has  borne  an  inscription, 
which  is  completely  obliterated.  A  vine  throws  its 
fruit  and  tendrils  over  the  stone  in  beautiful  and 
delicate  luxuriance.  A  large  portion  of  a  similar 
cross,  which  may  have  been  its  companion,  forms 
the  lintel  of  a  door  at  Dilston."  ^ 

Bishop  Browne,  our  best  living  authority  on 
our  early  crosses,  has  given  a  description  of  those 
of  Acca,  which  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  appro- 
priating. He  says  of  the  first-mentioned  one  that 
it  is  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  ofreat  crosses  of 
Northumbria.  **  It  is,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "a 
portion  of  the  cross  which  stood  at  the  head  of 
Bishop  Acca's  grave  at  Hexham.  .  .  .  The 
massive  fragment  was  found  in  excavating  in  the 
churchyard  at  Hexham,  along  with  another  piece 
of  a  shaft  of  a  cross  with  a  portion  of  the  head 
remaining.  At  Dilston,  near  Hexham,  there  was 
long  known  to  be  a  stone  used  as  the  lintel  of  a 
doorway  with  similar  sculpture.  In  the  course  of 
time  these  three  pieces  of  Anglian  sculpture  were 
brought  to  Durham  by  the  Reverend  Wm.  Green- 
well,  to  whom  the  archaeological  world  owes  so 
much.     Mr.   C.   C.    Hodges   discovered    that   this 

^  Raine,  Hexham^  xxxiv. 
VOL.  HI. — 10 


146  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

resemblance  of  ornament  meant  identity,  and  saw 
that  the  larger  piece  found  In  the  churchyard 
exacdy  fitted  to  the  massive  piece  which  had  served 
as  a  lintel.  All  that  is  now  missing  of  the  shaft  of 
the  cross  is  a  piece  of  about  4  feet  long,  and  this 
has  been  made  in  wood,  with  the  top  of  the  shaft 
and  the  portion  of  the  head  of  the  cross  set 
on  the  top.  Thus  we  have  now  the  cross  set 
up,  just  as  it  was,  wanting  the  pieces  that  have 
not  as  yet  been  found.  It  was,  when  complete, 
a  monument  on  the  same  scale  as  the  other  great 
crosses. 

'*  With  the  Bewcastle  and  Rushworth  crosses  one 
thing  pleased  me  much  when  I  saw  it  all  set  up. 
In  the  lowest  of  three  great  ovals  on  the  left  face 
the  tendrils  interlace  so  as  to  form  an  equal  armed 
cross.  .  .  .  The  face  and  two  sides  are  covered 
from  top  to  bottom  with  beautiful  scrolls  and 
bunches  of  grapes  and  tendrils.  On  the  back  it 
was  supposed  the  sculpture  had  all  been  chiselled 
off;  it  was  left  bare  and  battered  in  appearance. 
But  when  we  came  to  examine  it  in  all  kinds  of 
lights  at  all  hours  of  the  day,  and  by  very  powerful 
lights  at  night,  we  found  to  our  delight  that  this 
was  the  side  on  which  the  inscription  had  been. 
Here  and  there  we  could  read  words,  in  letters  2 J 
inches  long.  Across  the  very  top  of  the  shaft 
*A  .  .  .  A,'  evidently  Acca,  followed  by  ' sanctus 
hujus  ecclesiae'  Two  or  three  feet  lower  down  we 
read  '  unigeniti  fili  Dei,'  as  though  some  profession 
of  Acca's  faith    was    inscribed    on    his   head-cross, 


'te&*< 


45 1^ 


^ .      .  at.-* 


■>.'' 


f 
^fe 


tf 


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^>: 


^^ 


'^'..^**.. 


>  ^^^t'-'MM 


'  •  '^"/V^  V^\  %"^\    '^i 


Details  of  Acca's  Cross. 


[/W.  ni.,  facing  p.  146. 


BISHOP  ACCA  147 

conceivably  in  connection  with  the  record  that  for 
some  unexplained  reason  he  was  driven  out  of  his 
bishopric.  .  .  .  The  cross  which  stood  at  the  feet 
is  also,  I  believe,  in  existence  under  certain  secular 
foundations.  It  is  said  to  be  a  continuous  piece  at 
least  14  feet  long."^ 

The  name  of  Acca  is  commemorated  in  the 
Calendar  on  the  19th  of  February,  and  several 
miracles  are  assigned  to  him.  His  remains  were 
twice  translated,  the  first  time  by  Alured  or  Alfred, 
son  of  Westoue,  sacrist  of  the  church  of  Durham,  in 
the  eleventh  century.  In  the  narrative  of  Symeon 
of  Durham,  or  his  interpolator,  we  are  told  that 
when  the  coffin  was  opened  there  was  found  on 
his  breast  a  wooden  table  in  the  shape  of  an 
altar,  made  of  two  pieces  of  wood  fastened  together 
with  silver  nails  ;  on  It  was  sculptured  the  Inscrip- 
tion, "  Almae  TrinitatI,  agiae  Sophlae,  Sanctae 
Mariae."^  Some  of  the  Saint's  vesture  was  also 
found,  and  was  afterwards  shown  to  the  crowd  to 
be  kissed. 

His  remains  were  again  translated  in  11 54  and 
placed  on  the  left  of  the  altar,  and  eventually  on 
the  altar  of  St.  Michael  in  the  south  chapel.^  Their 
last  removal  took  place,  according  to  a  note  in  the 
Cambridge  MS.  of  Prior  Richard,  in  1240,  when 
some  of  the  Saint's  vestments  were  found  in 
wonderful  preservation.     Richard  specially  mentions 


^  Bishop  Browne's  Theodore  and  Wilfrtth,  257-261. 

^  Hist.  Reg.,  ed.  Arnold,  ii.  p.  33. 

^  Ailred  of  Rievaulx,  De  Sand.  Ecc.  Hagust.,  ed,  Surtees,  p.  191. 


148  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

a  linen  face-cloth,  chasuble,  and  silken  tunic 
(sudariu77i  lineu7n^  et  casula  et  tunica  sericae). 
These  he  tells  us  were  removed  from  the  coffin  on 
account  of  his  sanctity,  and  so  that  they  might 
receive  the  devotions  of  those  who  came  thither, 
and  were  still  exhibited  in  the  church  in  his 
day.^ 

In  the  register  of  R.  de  Segbrok,  keeper  of 
Cuthberht's  shrine  at  Durham,  we  find  in  the  cata- 
logue of  relics  there  preserved  ''  a  piece  of  the 
chasuble  of  St.  Acca  the  Bishop,"  and  '*an  ivory 
casket  with  relics  of  St.  Acca  the  Bishop,  with 
portions  of  his  face-cloth  and  chasuble  which  were 
in  the  ground  for  three  hundred  years,  and  the 
bones  of  St.  Acca."^ 

We  will  now  say  a  few  words  to  bring  the  story 
of  the  abbeys  of  Jarrow  and  Monkwearmouth  down 
to  the  year  731.  We  saw  how  Huaetberht  became 
abbot  there  on  25th  September  716,  on  the  depart- 
ure of  Ceolfrid  for  Rome,^  and  have  reported  the 
letter  of  commendation  which  he  gave  to  the  latter 
to  take  to  Pope  Gregory  11.*  His  appointment  was 
confirmed  by  Bishop  Acca.^  He  was  no  doubt 
known  to  the  Pope,  for  we  are  told  in  Bede's 
History  of  the  Abbots  that  he  had  visited  Rome  in 
the  days  of  Pope  Sergius  (687-701)  and  had  lived 
there  a  considerable  time,  and  had  thus  no  doubt 
largely  increased  his  stores  of  learning.     He  was 

*  See  Richard  of  Hexham^  ed.  Surtees,  p.  36,  note. 
'  Raine's  Cuthberht^  123,  126,  and  127. 

*  Bede,  Hist.  Abb.,  20.  •*  See  ajtfe,  ii.  273  and  274. 

*  Bede,  Hist.  Abb.,  20. 


ABBOT  HUiETBERHT  149 

there  in  701,  for  in  another  of  Bede's  works  he 
speaks  of  him  and  his  companions  thus  :  "  Anno  ab 
incarnatione  septingentesimo prinio  mdictione  quarta- 
decwia,  fratres  nostri  qui  tunc  fuere  Ro7nae,''  etc.^ 

There  he  transcribed  and  thence  brought  away 
with  him  whatever  he  considered  necessary.  He 
had  been  a  priest  twelve  years  when  elected  abbot, 
which  puts  his  ordination  in  704.^ 

Among  the  innumerable  privileges  of  the 
monastery  which,  says  Bede,  "he  recovered  by  his 
youthful  energy  and  wisdom,  there  was  one  which 
afforded  the  greatest  pleasure  and  gratification  to 
all,  namely,  that  he  took  up  the  bones  of  the  Abbot 
Eosterwine,  which  had  been  deposited  in  the 
'porticus'  of  the  Church  of  the  Blessed  Apostle 
Peter,  and  those  of  his  former  master  Siegfrid, 
which  had  been  interred  on  the  outside  and  south 
of  the  sacristy,  and  having  placed  them  both  in  one 
shrine  which  had  a  division  down  the  middle,  he 
deposited  them  within  the  church  and  near  the 
body  of  the  Blessed  Benedict  {i.e.  Benedict  Biscop). 
This  he  did  on  Siegfrid's  birthday,  i.e.  the  nth 
of  the  Kalends  of  September  (22nd  August). 
Witmaer,  the  venerable  servant  of  Christ,  having 
died  on  the  same  day,  was  put  in  the  grave  from 
which  Siegfrid's  remains  had  been  taken."  ^  Of 
Witmaer,  Bede  says  that  he  was  skilled  no  less  in 
secular  learning  than  in  the  Scriptures,  and  that  he 


^  De  Temp.  Rat.,  ch.  47  ;  Plummer,  Bede^  ii.  365. 
^  Bede,  op.  cit.  par.  18. 
^  Bede,  Vit.  Abb..,  par.  20. 


I  50  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

made  a  donation  for  ever  to  the  monastery  of  the 
Blessed  Peter  the  Apostle,  which  he  then  governed 
(was  he  the  Prior?),  consisting  of  the  land  of  ten 
families  [i.e.  ten  hides),  situated  in  the  vill  called 
Daltun,  which  he  had  himself  received  from  King 
Aldfrid.  Dal ton-le- Dale  is  on  the  road  from 
Wearmouth  to  Easington/ 

In  the  anonymous  History  of  the  Abbots  a  letter  is 
recorded  which  Pope  Gregory  11.  sent  to  him  in  reply 
to  his  commendatory  note  to  Ceolfrid.  It  is  entirely 
rhetorical  and  interlarded  with  Biblical  quotations.^ 
Bede  was  very  fond  of  him,  and  speaks  of  him  in 
affectionate  terms.  He  dedicated  his  works  In 
Apocalysin  and  De  Temp.  Ratione  to  him,  and 
in  his  De  Temp.  Nat.  he  speaks  of  him  as  the 
youthful  Huaetberht,  who  on  account  of  his  love  for 
and  his  devotion  to  piety  had  been  styled  Eusebius  ;  ^ 
and  he  so  calls  him  in  the  dedication  of  the  two 
works  above  named.  It  was  under  his  abbacy  that 
Bede  passed  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  and  he 
probably  outlived  the  historian  several  years,  as  is 
shown  by  a  letter  written  to  him  by  St.  Boniface, 
and  which  has  been  dated  in  744-747.  In  it 
Boniface,  who  calls  him  Huaetberht,  asks  him  to 
send  him  some  of  the  works  of  '*  the  most  wise 
interpreter  of  the  Scriptures,  Beda  the  Monk, 
who  lately  in  your  House  of  God  shone  like  a 
candle  of   the    Church    by    his   knowledge    of  the 

1  Bede,  Vit.  Abb.,  par.  15.  The  text  followed  by  Smith  calls  it 
Daldun,  which  is  a  township  in  the  parish  of  Dalton-le-Dale  (Rev. 
J.  Stevenson's  Translation  of  Bede,  615,  note  4). 

2  Plummer,  i.  403.  »  Plummer's  Bede,  i.  xiv.  note  7. 


BISHOP  BOSA  151 

Scriptures "  [quern  nuper  in  domo  Dei  aptid  vos 
vice  candelae  ecclesiastice  scientia  scripturartcm 
ftilsisse  audivimiis)} 

He  is  apparently  mentioned  twice  among  the 
abbots  in  the  Liber  Vitae  under  the  name  of 
Huaetbercht. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  York.  We  have  seen  how 
on  St.  Wilfrid's  expulsion  from  Northumbria  in 
678,  when  his  diocese  was  divided,  King  Ecgfrid 
and  Archbishop  Theodore  appointed  Bosa  as  his 
successor  at  York.^  It  is  very  remarkable,  con- 
sidering the  importance  of  that  see  and  the  length 
of  time  that  Bosa  held  it,  that  Bede  should  have  so 
little  to  say  about  him.  He  mentions  him  as  one 
of  the  five  bishops  who  were  pupils  of  St.  Hilda, 
and  that  he  was  consecrated  at  York  by  Theodore, 
and  was  present  at  the  Council  of  the  Nidd. 
This  is  pretty  nearly  all  we  know  of  him.  Alcuin 
praises  him  highly  In  his  poem  on  the  Bishops  of 
York,  where  Bosa  apparently  organised  the  services 
in  his  church  on  the  principles  of  the  monastic,  or 
at  least  the  ''  common  "  life. 

"Vir,  monachus,  praesul,  doctor  moderatus,  honestus, 
Quern  Divina  sacris  virtutum  gratia  sertis 
Compserat,  et  multis  fecit  fulgescere  donis. 

Non  terras  victusque,  domus,  nummismata,  vestes 
Nee  quicquam  proprium  sibimet  jam  vindicet  ullus, 
Omni^  sed  cunctis  fierent  communia  semper."^ 

^  He  also  asks  him  to  send  him  a  bell  {cloccam  unam),  and  bids 
him  accept  in  return  a  chair  or  seat  {lectisternia  caprina  ;  Diimmler 
glosses  the  former  word  by  lecti  opertoria ;  Mon.  Hist.  Germ.^ 
Epistolaruni  iii.  348). 

^  Bede^  iv.  12,  and  v.  24.  ^  Raine,  Historians  of  York,  374-5. 


1 5  2  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

He  was  honoured  as  a  confessor  on  the  13th  of 
March.'^  Some  authors  have  made  a  mistake  about 
the  date  of  his  death,  which  they  have  put  much  too 
early.  He  must  have  been  Hving  in  704,  when 
Pope  John  mentions  him  in  the  letter  of  commenda- 
tion which  St.  Wilfrid  brought  back  from  Rome 
with  him,^  so  that  he  could  not  have  been  dead 
before  that  year.  He  probably  died  in  705,  and  was 
succeeded  by  John,  known  as  Saint  John  of  Beverley. 

In  the  anonymous  life  of  that  saint  published 
by  Leland  ^  it  is  said  that  it  was  reported  he  was 
born  at  the  village  of  Harpham  (near  Driffield),  of 
noble  parents,  and  that  he  was  brought  up  under 
Archbishop  Theodore,  who  gave  him  the  name  of 
John;  he  afterwards  became  a  pupil  of  St.  Hilda 
at  Whitby.*  Raine  says  he  was  claimed  by  Oxford 
as  an  alumnus,  and  his  figure  appeared  as  a  doctor 
in  one  of  the  old  windows  at  University  College, 
and  in  another  window  at  Salisbury  Cathedral  as 
the  first  Master  of  Arts  at  Oxford.^  This  is,  of 
course,  mere  fable,  as  there  was  no  University  at 
Oxford  till  long  after  his  day.  He  was  famed  for 
his  learning  and  as  a  preacher  and  teacher,  notably 
in  scripture  and  history,  and  had  a  number  of  pupils, 
among  them  being  Bede,  St.  Siegfrid  the  deacon, 
Abbots  Berchthun  and  Herebald,  and  the  younger 
Wilfrid,  whom  he  afterwards  admitted  to  Holy 
Orders.     In  his  earlier  days  John  lived  an  ascetic 

^  Raine,  Fasti  Eb.^  i.  84. 

*  See  -(^ddi,  liv. ;  Richard  of  Hexham^  Surtees  ed.,  28  and  29,  note. 
^  Coll.,  iii.  100.  -t  Bede,  iv.  21  [23]. 

*  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.,  iii.  377. 


SAINT  JOHN  OF  BEVERLEY  153 

life  at  a  place  called  Erneshaw  or  Herneshalg. 
Prior  Richard  says  it  was  situated  north  of  the 
Tyne  on  a  height  overhanging  the  river.  He  else- 
where adds  that  there  was  an  oratory  there  dedicated 
to  St.  Michael,  which  was  appurtenant  to  Hexham 
Abbey.^  Bede  says  it  was  situated  in  a  retired 
situation  enclosed  by  a  narrow  wood  and  a  trench, 
and  that  it  had  a  cemetery  attached  to  it.  The  man 
of  God  used  to  retire  thither  with  some  companions, 
particularly  in  Lent,  so  that  he  might  devote  him- 
self to  undisturbed  reading  and  prayer.  On  one 
occasion  he  bade  his  companions  find  some  poor 
person  whom  he  might  keep  with  him  for  a  few 
days  by  way  of  alms,  as  was  his  wont.  They 
brought  a  poor  dumb  boy,  who  had  never  spoken 
a  word,  and  who,  according  to  Bede,  had  so  much 
scurf  and  scabs  on  his  head  that  no  hair  ever  grew 
on  it,  but  only  some  rough  burrs.  The  good  man 
had  a  cottage  made  for  him  within  the  enclosure  of 
his  dwelling  where  he  might  live,  and  he  gave  him 
a  daily  allowance.  On  the  second  Sunday  in  Lent 
he  sent  for  him  and  told  him  to  put  his  tongue  out. 
Holding  him  by  the  chin  he  made  the  sign  of  the 
Cross  over  his  tongue,  and  then  told  him  to  with- 
draw it  and  try  to  say  the  Anglian  word  Gae,  which, 
says  Bede,  means  "Yes."  The  boy's  tongue  was 
at  once  loosened  and  he  did  as  he  was  told.  He 
then  went  through  the  alphabet  with  him,  and  also 
bade  him  say  long  sentences,  which  he  accordingly 

^  See  RicJiard  of  Hexham^  ed.  Surtees,  15  ;  he  glosses  the  name 
Erneshaw  by  the  words  Latine^  Mons  aquilae. 


154  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

did.  The  physician  was  then  ordered  to  cure  his 
head,  which  he  also  succeeded  in  doing.  The  boy 
acquired  a  good  crop  of  hair,  and  then  returned 
home.^  Bede  says  he  heard  the  story  from  John's 
friend,  Abbot  Berchthun.  Raine,  in  his  edition  of 
Richard  of  Hexham,  identified  the  Herneshalg  or 
Erneshaw  of  the  story  with  St.  John's  Lee  {i.e. 
St.  John's  meadow),  which  just  talHes  with  the  de- 
scription and  the  alleged  distance  from  Hexham  ; 
it  has,  further,  always  belonged  to  that  see.  It 
may  be  that  it  was  named  not  after  the  Arch- 
bishop, but  after  St  John  the  Baptist,  for 
Reginald  tells  us  that  on  the  latter's  vigil  and  natal 
day  a  great  number  of  the  halt  and  sick  used  to  repair 
there.  It  is  more  probable  that  the  Baptist  had  been 
substituted  for  the  Bishop  in  later  times.^  St.  John's 
Lee  is  the  very  place,  says  Raine,  for  a  hermit's  cell, 
and  you  think  of  what  it  was  twelve  centuries  ago, 
with  the  eagles  swooping  to  their  eyrie  over  the 
solitary  graveyard.  He  adds  a  caveat  in  regard 
to  Reginald's  etymology,  however,  for  Hernshaw 
means  a  heron.^  There  was  a  kind  of  religious 
wake  held  on  the  23rd  and  24th  of  June  there. 

John  was  a  protdgd  of  King  Aldfrid,  and  it  was 
probably  through  his  influence  that  he  was  made 
Bishop  of  Hexham  on  the  death  of  Eata  in  685, 
and  was  presently  translated  to  York.  He  is 
described  as  having  been  diligent  in  ruling  the 
monasteries,  attending  to  the  poor  and  consecrating 
churches,  and  was  a  favourite  with  King  Osred  and 
^  Bede,  v.  2.      2  Qp^  ^^^  pp,  ,7  m^d  18.     »  Qp^  ^^^  15  and  16,  Note  Z. 


SAINT  JOHN  OF  BEVERLEY  155 

his  nobles.  Durinor  his  wanderinors  in  the  East 
Riding  he  observed  a  spot  called  Deirewald  {i.e. 
Sylva  Deirorum),  where  wild  forest  and  waters 
were  interspersed  with  rich  pasture  lands,  and 
which  in  later  times  was  known  as  Beverley, 
from  the  beavers  which  abounded  in  the  waters  of 
the  river  Hull.  There  was  a  little  church  there  dedi- 
cated to  St,  John  the  Evangelist,  which  he  acquired 
and  made  into  the  nucleus  of  a  monastery,  in  which 
he  put  some  monks.  He  rebuilt  the  presbytery 
of  this  church  and  also  an  oratory  dedicated  to 
St.  Martin  to  the  south  of  it,  where  he  settled  some 
nuns.  The  community  he  founded  consisted  of 
seven  priests  and  seven  other  clerics.^  "  John,"  says 
the  same  author,  ''acquired  the  manor  of  Ridinges  for 
his  monasteries  and  built  the  church  of  St.  Nicholas 
on  his  property  there.  He  also  gave  the  same 
monastery,  lands  at  Middleton,  Welwik,  Bilton, 
and  Patrinorton."^ 

o 

Bede  tells  us  more  than  one  interesting  miracu- 
lous story  about  the  bishop.  One  of  these,  which 
occurred  at  the  monastery  of  Wetadun  (now  Watton, 
in  the  East  Riding),  I  have  already  described. 
Another,  which  was  reported  to  him  by  Berchthun, 
who  became  the  first  Abbot  of  Beverley,  states  that 
about  two  miles  from  Beverley  there  lived  a  gesyth 
or  lord  (comes)  called  Puch,  who  had  a  manor  there. 
The  anonymous  biographer  and  Folcard  say  this  was 
at  South  Burton  (it  is  now  called  Bishop's  Burton). 

'  Anon.  Life  in  Leland,  op.cit.  iii.  100. 
^  Leland,  op.  cit.  iii.  loi. 


156  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Puch's  wife  had  languished  from  an  acute  disease 
for  forty  years,  and  for  three  weeks  it  had  not  been 
possible  to  remove  her  from  her  bed.  The  bishop 
was  invited  by  her  husband  to  consecrate  a  church  or 
chapel  near  his  house  (probably  a  domestic  chapel). 
He  asked  him  to  dine  with  him  on  the  occasion, 
but  the  latter  declined,  saying  he  must  return  to  the 
monastery.  Puch  pressed  him  to  do  so,  and  said 
he  would  give  alms  to  the  poor  if  he  would  conde- 
scend to  break  his  fast  under  his  roof.  Berchthun 
also  urged  him  to  do  so,  saying  he  would  also 
give  some  alms  if  he  would  dine  with  the  great 
man  and  give  his  blessing.  The  bishop  having 
after  some  further  demur  consented,  sent  some 
holy  water  (which  he  had  consecrated  for  the  dedi- 
cation of  the  church  by  one  of  his  clergy)  to  the  sick 
woman,  with  injunctions  that  she  was  to  drink  some 
of  it,  and  rub  the  place  where  the  pain  was  felt  with 
the  rest.  We  are  told  she  immediately  recovered 
and  became  strong,  and  then  presented  the  cup  to 
his  companions  and  served  them  with  drink  during 
the  dinner — thus  following,  says  Bede,  the  example 
of  Peter's  mother-in-law  as  told  in  Matthew  viii.  14.^ 
Mr.  Plummer,  in  commenting  on  this  miracle, 
has  a  note  on  the  curious  early  rule  that  a  man 
might  redeem  his  fast  {his  fasten  aliesan,  as  the 
Anglo-Saxon  version  has  it),  i.e.  get  rid  of  the 
penalty  of  going  through  it,  by  giving  alms.^ 


*  Bede.,  v.  4. 

^  See  Bede's  Penitential ;  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  iii.  333  and  334  ; 
Plummer,  ii.  276. 


SAINT  JOHN  OF  BEVERLEY  157 

Puch's  daughter,  Yolfrida,  became  a  nun  at 
Beverley  and  died  on  the  3rd  of  the  Ides  of  March 
742,  and  her  remains  were  deposited  in  the  monas- 
tery there.  The  Anon.  Life  in  Leland  also  says 
that  Puch  o^ave  the  manor  of  Walkinorton  with  his 
daughter  to  Beverley,^  and  that  Addi,  the  lord  of 
the  manor  of  North  Burton,  also  gave  that  manor 
with  the  advowson  of  its  church  to  the  same 
church.  "  Chapels  (Capellae)  were  afterwards  built 
at  Lekingfeld  and  Scorburgh,  which  afterwards 
became  parish  churches."  King  Osred  similarly 
gave  the  manor  of  Dalton,  in  Yorkshire,  where  he 
had  a  royal  villa,  to  this  same  foundation.^ 

On  another  occasion,  according  to  Bede,  the 
bishop,  being  called  in  to  dedicate  Addi's  new 
church,  was  asked  by  him  to  visit  one  of  his  servants 
who  was  very  ill  and  had  lost  the  use  of  his  limbs  ; 
the  coffin,  indeed,  to  bury  him  in,  had  already  been 
provided.  Addi  urged  that  the  man's  life  was  of 
great  consequence  to  him,  adding  that  if  the  bishop 
would  only  put  his  hands  on  him  he  would  be  cured. 
John  thereupon  went  in  to  see  him,  and  found 
him  with  his  coffin  beside  him  and  all  the  people 
sorrowing  around.  He  prayed  and  blessed  him. 
Presently  when  they  were  at  dinner  the  young  man 
sent  to  beg  for  a  cup  of  wine,  as  he  was  thirsty. 
The  nobleman  sent  him  one  blessed  by  the  bishop, 
whereupon  he  at  once  got  up  and  dressed  himself, 
and  went  in  to  salute  the  latter,  saying  he  would 
also  like  to  eat  and  be  merry  with  them.      He  did 

^  Leland,  op.  cit.  iii.  100.  ^  lb.  loi. 


I  5  8  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

so,  and  lived  for  many  years  afterwards.  The 
abbot  (who  reported  it)  confessed  that  the  miracle 
had  not  taken  place  in  his  presence,  and  he  had  only 
heard  of  it ! ! !  ^ 

Bede  also  tells  of  another  miracle  performed  on 
Herebald,  one  of  the  bishop's  household  (who 
became  Prior  of  Tynemouth,  a  post  he  held  in 
731,  when  he  himself  was  writing  his  history),  and 
to  which  Herebald  himself  was  wont  to  testify. 
His  story  was  that  in  the  prime  of  youth  he  lived 
among  the  clergy  and  applied  himself  to  reading 
and  singing,  but  had  not  altogether  given  up  his 
boyish  and  frivolous  ways.  He  and  his  com- 
panions, when  they  were,  travelling  with  their  master 
[i.e.  John),  came  to  a  flat  and  open  road,  well 
adapted  for  racing  their  horses.  The  young  men 
of  the  party,  especially  the  laymen,  asked  the  bishop 
to  let  them  have  a  gallop  to  test  the  quality  of  their 
horses.  At  first  he  refused,  saying  it  was  an  idle 
pastime,  but  under  pressure  consented  on  condition 
that  Herebald  should  have  no  part  in  the  trial. 
The  latter  begged  hard  that  he  too  might  have 
permission  in  order  to  test  a  horse  which  had  been 
a  present  from  the  bishop  himself,  but  he  would  not 
consent.  Presently  when  the  rest  had  ridden  to 
and  fro  several  times  he  became  excited,  and  in 
spite  of  the  bishop's  wish,  mixed  with  them  and 
began  to  ride  at  full  speed,  at  which  John  was 
S^ready  grieved.  Suddenly  his  horse  took  a  great 
leap  over  a  hollow  place  in  the  course,  and  he  fell 

*  Be^gj  V.  5. 


SAINT  JOHN  OF  BEVERLEY  159 

off  and  lost  his  senses,  as  if  he  were  dead,  "  it  having 
been  ordained  by  Divine  providence  that  in  punish- 
ment of  his  wilfulness  his  head  should  strike  the 
only  stone  existing  in  that  place,  and  which  was 
disguised  by  the  turf."  He  broke  his  thumb  and 
the  joints  of  his  skull  were  loosened  (infracto  pollice 
capitis  q7wque .  junctura  solveretttr).  As  he  could 
not  be  moved  they  stretched  a  tent  over  him 
[ietendertcnt  ibide7n  papilionem  in  quo  jacerem). 
He  thus  lay  unconscious  from  the  seventh  hour  of 
the  day  till  the  evening,  when  he  revived  a  little 
and  was  then  carried  home  by  his  companions  and 
lay  speechless  all  night,  vomiting  blood,  because 
his  intestines  were  ruptured  by  his  fall  (eo  q2tod  et 
hitera7iea  essent  ruendo  convzilsd).  The  bishop  was 
much  grieved,  for  he  greatly  loved  the  boy,  and 
instead  of  spending  the  night  with  his  clergy  he  sat 
watching  and  praying  alone,  imploring  the  Divine 
Goodness  for  his  recovery.  Coming  to  him  early 
in  the  morning  he  said  a  prayer  over  him,  called 
him  by  his  name,  and  (as  it  were  waking  him  out 
of  a  heavy  sleep)  asked  him  whether  he  knew  who 
was  speaking  to  him.  Herebald  replied,  "  I  do,  it 
is  my  beloved  bishop."  "Can  you  live.'^"  said  he. 
He  answered,  "  I  may  through  your  prayers,  if  it 
shall  so  please  God." 

The  bishop  then  laid  his  hand  on  his  head  with 
the  words  of  blessing  and  went  to  prayers,  and  when 
he  presently  returned  he  found  his  stricken  young 
friend  sitting  up  and  able  to  talk.  Being  admonished 
by  Divine  instinct,  the  bishop  asked  him  if  he  had 


1 60  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

ever  been  baptized.  Herebald  told  him  he  knew 
he  had,  and  named  the  priest  who  had  officiated. 
The  bishop  then  said  he  had  known  the  priest  in 
question.  He  was  a  man,  he  said, who  could  not,  on 
account  of  his  dulness  of  understanding,  learn  the 
ministry  of  catechising  and  baptizing,  and  that  he 
ought  to  have  been  inhibited  from  his  presumptuous 
exercise  of  the  ministry  which  he  could  not  rightly 
perform.  He  thereupon  catechised  Herebald  afresh, 
and  blew  upon  his  face  {i.e.  practised  the  rite  of  ex- 
sufflation),  which  formed  a  part  of  every  baptismal 
service.  Herebald  presently  found  himself  better. 
John  also  summoned  the  surgeon  and  bade  him  bind 
up  his  skull  where  it  had  been  loosened,  and  soon 
he  was  so  much  recovered  that  he  went  for  a  ride 
on  horseback  and  travelled  with  the  bishop  to 
another  place,  and  when  he  had  quite  recovered  he 
was  sprinkled  with  the  life-giving  water.^ 

The  view  here  proclaimed  and  acted  upon  by 
Bishop  John  was  clearly  quite  unorthodox  according 
to  the  theories  of  the  Western  Church,  which  did 
not  permit  re-baptism,  even  if  the  baptizing  person 
was  a  heretic  or  schismatic.  On  this  Bede  himself 
is  positive,  and  the  view  was  maintained  very 
definitely  by  Pope  Zacharias  in  a  letter  he  wrote 
to  St.  Boniface  in  746,  rebuking  him  for  re-baptizing 
persons  in  a  case  where  an  ignorant  priest  had 
baptized  people  with  the  blundered  formula,  '' Baptizo 
te  in  nomine patria  et  filia  et  Spiritus  Sancti.''^ 

^  Bede^  v.  chap.  6. 

*  Mon.  Germ.  Hist.^  iii.  Ep.  p.  338  ;  see  Plummer,  op.  cit.  ii.  277. 


SAINT  JOHN  OF  BEVERLEY  i6i 

William  of  Malmesbury  has  a  miracle  story  of 
another  kind,  in  which  John  had  a  part.  He  says 
the  people  of  Beverley  used  sometimes  to  have 
an  exhibition  of  the  fiercest  bulls  (perhaps  a  bull- 
baiting  was  meant).  The  bulls  were  bound  with 
many  knotted  cords  and  dragged  along  with  the 
greatest  difficulty  by  very  strong  men.  On  one 
occasion  they  escaped  and  made  their  way  into  the 
cemetery  of  the  monastery,  whereupon  they  became 
as  quiet  as  sheep.^ 

John's  biographer  Folcard  reports  of  him 
that  he  was  once  the  guest  of  King  Osred, 
when  the  butler  Brithred  was  told  to  fill  up  three 
jars,  one  with  wine,  a  second  with  milk,  and  the 
third  with  beer.  When  the  drink  ran  short,  our 
Saint,  as  at  the  marriage  at  Cana,  replenished  the 
liquor  by  blessing  the  vessels.^  On  another  occasion, 
when  staying  at  Beverley  with  Abbot  Berchthun, 
he  took  a  bath,  after  which  the  abbot  asked  him 
if  he  would  have  a  glass  of  wine.  Brithred  the 
butler  broke  the  glass  accidentally  as  he  was 
carrying  it,  but  the  wine  by  the  Saint's  interven- 
tion did  not  run  away.^  On  another  occasion  he  is 
reported  to  have  restored  a  boy  to  life  by  the  use  of 
chrism.*  It  was  said  that  John  used  sometimes  to 
visit  the  church  of  St.  Michael  at  York,  and  while 
there  a  dove,  as  in  the  case  of  St.  Gregory,  visited 
him  and  settled  on  his  head. 


^  Gest.  Pont.,  iii.  no. 

2  Raine's  Historians  of  York,  i.  254  and  255. 

3/^.255.  ^  Id.  257-8. 

VOL.  III.  —  II 


1 62   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Bede  tells  us  that  when  he  was  an  old  man, 
being  unable  to  govern  his  diocese  properly,  John 
ordained  his  priest  (that  is,  his  chaplain)  Wilfrid,  to 
the  see,  which  was  an  irregular  practice,  and  then 
retired  to  his  own  foundation  of  Beverley,  where  he 
died  in  721  a.d.,  and  where  he  was  buried  in  the 
porticus  or  chapel  of  St.  Peter/  His  festival  was 
observed  at  Beverley  on  the  7th  May,  which  is  his 
day  in  the  York  Missal.  Florence  of  Worcester 
also  says  he  died  on  that  day.^ 

Bale  ^  attributes  homilies  and  epistles  to  him, 
namely,  "  Pro  Luca  exponendo"  (lib.  i.),  ''  Homeliae 
Evangeliorum  "  (lib.  i.),  ''  Ad  Hyldam  Abbatissam  " 
(lib.  i.),  *'Ad  Herebaldum  Discipulum  "  (Epist.  i.), 
"Ad  Audoenum  et  Bertinum  Epist.  ii.,  etc."^ 

John  after  his  death  became  the  patron  saint  of 
Beverley,  and  is  universally  known  as  St.  John  of 
Beverley  ;  he  was,  in  fact,  one  of  the  principal 
saints  in  the  north  of  England,  and  was  officially 
canonised  by  Pope  Benedict  ix.  in  1037. 

The  bishop's  remains  were  placed  in  a  feretory 
of  wood,  beautifully  carved.^  They  remained  intact 
until  the  Danish  invasion,  wKen  the  monastery 
at  Beverley,  like  all  others  in  northern  England, 
was  destroyed,  together,  says  the  anonymous  bio- 
grapher, with  the  books  and  all  the  ornaments  there, 
and  it  remained  desolate  for  three  years,  when  the 
priests  and  clerics  returned  and  rebuilt  it.    They  had 


*  Bede,  op.  cit.  v.  6.  '  Plummer,  ii.  273  ;  M.H.B.^  p.  541. 

*  Scrr.  Brit.  CenL^  i.  89.  *  Raine,  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.,  iii.  377. 
« lb.  378. 


SAINT  JOHN  OF  BEVERLEY  163 

apparently  preserved  the  Saint's  remains,  which  were 
translated  by  Archbishop  ^Ifric  on  the  8th  of  the 
Kalends  of  November  1037,  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  Confessor.  The  bishop's  ring  and  some 
fragments  of  the  Gospels  were  found  in  the  coffin 
and  were  afterwards  put  in  his  reliquary.^  At  the 
same  time  the  remains  of  St.  Berchthun  were  also 
translated.  He  had  been  his  deacon  and  became 
the  first  abbot  of  Beverley. 

St.  John's  new  shrine  was  highly  decorated  with 
silver  and  precious  stones.  In  11 87  the  monastery 
was  again  burnt  down.  In  consequence  a  new 
shrine  had  to  be  made,  to  which  the  Saint's  remains 
were  moved  in  1198.  These  were  discovered  in 
1664  under  a  marble  stone  at  the  entrance  to  the 
quire.  A  leaden  plate  with  an  inscription  was 
found  with  them.  The  remains  were  aeain  seen 
in  1736.^ 

His  shrine  was  said  to  possess  great  curative 
powers,  and  a  sweet  oil  flowed  from  his  tomb  ;  at 
other  times  an  effulgent  light  shone  over  it.^ 

The  number  of  miracles  recorded  as  having  been 
performed  by  his  relics  are  quite  phenomenal,  and 
his  tomb  was  visited  by  a  long  array  of  English 
kings.  The  first  who  is  recorded  to  have  done  so 
was  Athelstan.  One  of  the  writers  who  reported 
John's  miracles  says  that  that  King  when  on  his 
campaign  to  Scotland  met  many  people  in  Lindsey, 
and   hearing   how    they    had    been    cured    by    St. 

^  Anon.  Life  in  Leland,  iii.  102. 

*  Raine,  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.^  iii.  378.  ^  lb.  378. 


1 64  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

John,  sent  his  army  to  Beverley  to  get  his 
blesslncr.  He  himself  took  a  knife  from  its 
sheath  (extrahens  cultellum  suum  de  vagina)  and 
placed  it  on  the  altar.  He  proposed  to  handsomely 
redeem  it  if  he  returned  successfully,  and  bore 
away  with  him  the  Saint's  banner  to  fight  under. 
When  the  Scots  were  in  retreat  and  had  crossed 
a  ford,  John  is  said  to  have  appeared  to  the  King 
in  a  dream  and  bade  him  follow  them  over  the 
river  and  conquer,  which  he  did.  Having  beaten 
them,  he  subjected  them  to  tribute.  At  Dunbar 
he  asked  for  a  sign  from  heaven  of  his  impend- 
ing victory,  and  it  was  granted  him,  for,  striking 
a  hard  stone  with  his  sword,  he  clave  it  as  if  it 
were  butter,  "as  may  still  be  seen,"  says  our 
author. 

On  his  return,  Athelstan  visited  Beverley  and 
made  an  offering  of  his  arms  and  of  other  gifts  to  St. 
John,  and  also  gave  the  place  the  right  of  sanctuary, 
the  limits  of  which  were  marked  by  four  stone  crosses : 
one  of  which  was  at  Melescroft,  now  Molescroft, 
about  a  mile  from  Beverley  on  the  road  to  York. 
He  decreed  that  any  one  violating  the  sanctuary 
within  this  limit  was  to  pay  a  fine  of  eight  pounds 
of  silver  to  the  church.  If  within  the  three  crosses 
(marvellously  carved,  standing  at  the  entrance  of 
Beverley),  twenty-four  pounds.  If  within  the  ceme- 
tery of  the  church,  seventy-four  pounds.  If  within 
the  church  itself,  this  last  fine  was  to  be  tripled.  If, 
lastly,  within  the  chancel  arch  {infra  arcus  supra 
introitum  cancelli  posit os)^  "the  last  penalty"  was 


SAINT  JOHN  OF  BEVERLEY  165 

to  be  exacted/  According  to  our  author,  Athelstan 
made  over  to  the  monastery,  for  the  annual  upkeep 
of  the  clergy,  the  equivalent  of  the  obligation  of 
providing  hesterasfda,  or  a  supply  of  fodder,  for 
the  King's  horses,  which  had  been  imposed  on  the 
"coloni "  (?  farmers)  in  a  large  district  in  Yorkshire. 
It  involved  a  charore  on  each  carucate  in  the 
East  Riding  (i.e.  the  product  of  each  plough, —  ad 
cultrum  et  vomej^em)  of  four  travas  (?)  of  its  fruits. 
This  had  hitherto  been  levied  on  the  district 
bounded  on  one  side  by  the  Derwent,  on  another 
by  the  Humber,  and  on  a  third  by  the  North  Sea. 
''The  district,"  he  says,  "had  anciently  been  called 
Delra."^  The  deed  securing  these  privileges  was 
written  In  Anglo-Saxon.^ 

Athelstan  also  founded  a  College  of  Canons  at 
Beverley,  named  a  town  among  the  Scots  after 
St.  John,  and  presented  the  church  at  Beverley 
with  lands  at  Brandesburton  aud  Loklngton,  and 
decreed  that  It  should  be  the  capital  of  all  the  East 
Riding.^ 

Several  post-Conquest  kings  had  dealings  with 
the  place.  Thus  we  are  told  by  Ketel,  who  was  one 
of  those  who  collected  and  published  his  miracles, 
that  Beverley  and  its  sacred  patrimony  and  right 
of  shelter  were  alone  respected  by  William  the 
Conqueror  when   he  ravaged   Yorkshire,  and  that 

*  Acta  Miracula  St.  John  ;  Raine's  Church  Historians  of  York, 
pp.  297-298. 

^  Leland,  Co//.,  iii.  loi  ;  Raine's  Church  Historians  of  York,  pp. 
293-298. 

^  Leland,  Co//.,  iii.  loi.  ■*  lb.  loi. 


1 66  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

some  soldiers,  led  by  Thurstan,  having  incon- 
tinently plundered  it,  the  King  made  ample 
amends. 

A  very  notable  personage  who  visited  Beverley 
and  its  shrine  was  Edward  i.,  who  in  his  Scottish 
war  took  St.  Wilfrid's  and  St.  John's  banners  with 
him,^  and  had  them  placed  on  a  chariot  on  the 
battlefield,  whence  the  fight  was  known  as  the 
Battle  of  the  Standard. 

Henry  iv.  and  v.  both  visited  the  shrine.  The 
battle  of  Aglncourt  was,  in  fact,  fought  on  the  25th 
October,  the  day  of  the  translation  of  St.  John's 
remains.  The  latter  King  attributed  his  victory 
to  the  intercession  of  the  Saint,  and  made  a 
pilgrimage  with  the  Queen  to  Beverley.  In  con- 
sequence. Archbishop  Chichele  ordered  that  the 
Saint's  deathday  should  in  future  be  observed  as  a 
''distinguished  festival."^ 

Let  us  now  tell  one  or  two  of  the  stories  which 
were  current  about  the  efficacy  of  the  Saint's 
intervention  in  curing  human  ills  after  his  death. 
Archbishop  Gerald  having  visited  Beverley,  one  of 
his  servants  who  was  deaf  and  dumb  was  cured 
while  that  prelate  was  saying  mass.  The  arch- 
bishop referred  to  the  miracle  in  his  sermon,  when 
a  certain  Anglian  noble  who  was  present  told  the 

^  Richard  of  Hexham^  pp.  90,  91.  He  quotes  two  lines  from  a 
poem  written  on  the  occasion  by  Sotevagina,  the  Archdeacon  of 
York,  and  involving  a  pun  which  run  thus  : — 

"  Dicitur  a  stando  standardt(?n^  quod  stetit  illic 
Militiae  probitas  vinccre  sive  mori^ 
^  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.^  iii.  p.  378. 


SAINT  JOHN  OF  BEVERLEY  167 

great  man  he  must  not  think  so  highly  of  the 
occurrence,  for  such  miracles  were  common  at 
Beverley,  and  he  urged  him,  therefore,  to  beware 
of  meddling  with  the  privileges  of  the  place.  It 
would  seem  that  the  archbishop  was  an  austere 
person  and  had  been  unduly  exacting  in  his 
discipline.  Other  stories  show  that  in  order  to 
exact  ransom  from  prisoners  it  was  the  fashion  at 
this  time  to  torture  them  and  even  to  take  out 
their  teeth.  Prayers  to  St.  John  are  reported  to 
have  caused  the  bonds  of  captives  to  be  broken, 
and  to  have  helped  them  to  secure  the  shelter  of 
the  abbey's  "sanctuary  precincts." 

Another  story  shows  that  it  was  the  custom 
for  certain  criminals  to  be  condemned  to  wear  an 
iron  girdle  round  their  waist  as  a  penance.  One 
such  had  been  ordered  to  wear  it  for  killing  his 
brother,  and  had  had  it  on  a  year.  When  praying 
for  St.  John's  help,  it  burst  asunder,  and  the 
narrator  says  he  heard  it  crack.  On  another 
occasion  a  rustic  from  Lindsey  was  troubled  with 
a  huge  tumour  or  growth,  which  entirely  deformed 
him.  It  being  beyond  the  skill  of  the  wise  women 
{sapie^itibus  muliebris)  whom  he  consulted,  they 
advised  him  to  go  to  the  shrine  of  some  saint, 
and  St.  John  was  chosen  by  lot.  The  writer  claims 
to  have  known  the  man. 

On  another  occasion  a  ship  was  going  from 
Apulia  to  Rome,  and  was  in  peril  from  a  storm. 
An  Englishman  on  board  made  the  sailors  pray 
to   St.   John,   who    shared  with   St.    Nicholas   the 


1 68  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

privilege  of  controlling  the  waves.     They  did  so, 
and  beinor  saved,  made  a  collection  for  the  Saint's 

shrine. 

Having  told  this  story,  the  writer  declared 
he  would  describe  no  more  miracles,  for  he  was  sick 
at  heart  at  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked  in  his 
time,  but  he  begs  St.  John  to  help  him  to  eternal 
life  as  a  reward  for  his  humble  efforts  to  extol  him 
in  his  book.  Others  continued  the  role  of  story- 
teller, however,  after  the  dispirited  Ketel  was 
weary. 

Thus  one  tells  how  on  a  certain  occasion,  a 
great  drought  having  supervened  in  Yorkshire, 
some  of  the  canons  from  York  went  to  Beverley 
to  ask  for  the  Saint's  help.  They  formed  a  great 
procession,  which  perambulated  the  church  with  the 
Saint's  body.  A  storm  of  rain  having  come  on,  the 
credit  of  it  was  given  to  St.  John.  On  another 
occasion  an  apoplectic  Irishman  was  cured  by  the 
shadow  of  the  Saint's  shrine  falling  on  him.  On 
another,  again,  a  scholar  who  visited  Beverley  fell 
in  love  with  a  young  lady  and  could  not  cure  his 
passion.  He  accordingly  had  recourse  to  the 
Saint,  who  took  away  his  evil  desire.  This  was 
indeed  a  strong  proof  of  the  Saint's  potency. 

Again,  a  ship  bound  for  Scotland  was  over- 
taken by  a  storm,  and  some  merchants  on  board 
turned  to  St.  John  for  help,  who  produced  a  calm. 
One  of  them  who  meanwhile  had  a  trance  (velut  in 
exstasi  positus)  described  a  vision  he  had  seen,  in 
which   a  troop  of  devils   had   determined  to  de- 


SAINT  JOHN  OF  BEVERLEY  169 

stroy  the  vessel,  but  were  driven  away  by  a  certain 
bishop,  who  turned  out  to  be  St.  John. 

Another  miracle  is  worth  reporting  as  affording 
a  side-light  on  old  customs.  We  are  told  that  on 
a  certain  summer  day  a  miracle  play,  represent- 
ing Christ's  resurrection,  was  being  performed 
inside  the  wall  of  the  cemetery  of  St.  John's 
church  at  Beverley,  which  was  attended  by  a  large 
crowd  of  people.  So  great  was  the  throng  that 
a  large  number  of  them,  especially  those  of  little 
stature,  could  not  see  what  was  going  on,  so  they 
entered  the  church — some  to  pray  and  some  to 
look  at  the  pictures,  etc.  Among  them  were  a 
number  of  boys,  who  soon  found  a  door  opening 
on  to  a  staircase  by  which  they  could  mount  to  the 
top  and  thence  on  to  the  roofs,  and  made  their 
way  through  the  open  windows  in  the  turrets  or  by 
holes  in  the  glass  of  the  windows,  whence  they 
could  see  and  hear  the  play.  ''They  thus  imitated 
Zaccheus,"  says  our  narrator,  who  was  also  a  small 
man  and  who  climbed  a  tree  the  better  to  see 
Christ.  The  watchmen  having  given  chase  after 
the  intruders,  one  of  the  boys  tried  to  make  his 
way  down  by  scaling  the  wall  by  the  great  cross,  then 
standing  near  the  altar  of  St.  Mary.  One  of  the 
stones,  however,  gave  way,  whereupon  he  fell  on 
the  pavement  and  lay  as  if  dead.  The  spectators,  and 
especially  the  boy's  parents,  were  greatly  grieved 
and  wept  audibly,  but  by  the  help  of  the  Saint  he 
was  restored  again  and  showed  no  sign  of  having 
been  hurt.     Thus,  says  our  writer,  was  the  drama 


170  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

of  the  resurrection  re-enacted  not  only  outside  the 
church  but  also  inside. 

I  have  made  a  selection  from  such  among 
the  many  miracles  reported  of  St.  John  and  his 
remains,  as  seemed  to  me  to  have  an  additional 
interest  in  illustrating  manners  and  customs  in  old 
days.  The  greater  part  of  the  rest  are  tedious  beyond 
measure,  and  relate  miraculous  cures  of  various 
kinds  ad  nauseam,  and  other  very  trivial  benefits 
conferred  on  supplicants  for  the  Saint's  bounty. 
All  of  them  were  useful,  however,  for  pointing 
certain  morals  in  homilies  and  sermons.  From  them 
the  great  stream  of  pilgrims  might  learn  what  a  use- 
ful friend  the  Saint  could  be  to  simple  mortals  if  they 
would  only  generously  increase  his  income  and  that 
of  his  great  Minster  at  Beverley,  and  help  his  officers 
to  keep  his  fame  alive  in  a  suitable  fashion.  Such 
shrines  were  multiplied  all  over  the  country  ;  some 
were  of  greater  and  some  of  less  importance,  and 
were  believed  to  afford  much  more  certain  remedies 
for  the  lame,  the  halt,  and  the  blind  than  any 
number  of  doctors  or  wise  women.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  understand  early  mediaeval  history  if  we 
ignore  such  stories.  They  formed  the  great  staple 
of  popular  literature,  and  best  illustrate  popular 
thought  and  belief.  It  is  really  wonderful  what 
immense  crowds  and  from  how  far  and  from  what 
a  variety  of  places  people  came  to  a  shrine  so 
famous  as  that  of  St.  John  of  Beverley.  Registers 
of  these  visitors,  with  their  dignity  duly  noted,  were 
carefully   preserved,   in  which  the  habitat   of   each 


BISHOP  WILFRID  THE  YOUNGER  171 

person  cured  was  duly  given.  The  larger  number 
came  from  Lincolnshire  and  the  neighbouring 
counties,  to  which  Beverley  was  the  most  ac- 
cessible shrine ;  but  they  came  also  from  remote 
corners  of  the  country.  Their  number  was  also 
largely  increased  by  those  who  sought  sanctuary 
at  Beverley. 

The  Saint  himself  was  universally  known  as 
St.  John  of  Beverley.  Some  lections  are  marked 
in  certain  copies  of  Bede  meant  to  be  used  on  his 
feast-day.^  Miss  Forster  mentions  churches  at 
Aslackton,  Harpham,  Lee  St.  John,  Salton,  Scar- 
rington,  Whatton-in-the-Vale,  and  Wressle  as 
dedicated  to  him.^ 

John  was  succeeded  as  Bishop  of  York  by 
Wilfrid,  called  Wilfrid  the  younger  {Wilfer^  seo 
junga)^  and  otherwise  referred  to  as  Wilfrid  the 
second.  He  was  educated  under  Hilda  at  Whitby/ 
and,  according  to  Alcuin,  had  been  "  vicedomnus  " 
(?  prior)  and  ''abbas"  (or  abbot)  at  York.^  It  may 
be  that  he  was  the  "Wilfrid  the  Abbot"  who  was 
the  intimate  friend  of  St.  Guthlac,  as  reported 
by  Felix.  He  was,  as  we  have  seen,  nominated 
and  consecrated  as  his  successor  at  York  by  St. 
John  of  Beverley.  Alcuin  in  his  poems  mentions 
his  generous  gifts  to  the  minster,  including  a 
covering  for  the  altar,  and  crosses,  covered  by 
plates  of  silver  gilt,  and  that  he  was  also  generous 

^  Plummer's  Bede,  i.  432.  2  Qp^  f^if  ijj,  387^  388. 

'  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  sub  an.  744. 

*  Bede,  iv.  21  [23].  *  Alcuin,  De  Pofit.  Ebor.,  v.  1217. 


172  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

to  other  churches.  He  resigned  the  see  before 
his  death  in  732,  probably  in  consequence  of  old 
age,  and  died  in  745.^  Dr.  Stubbs,  in  his  work 
on  Episcopal  Succession,  pp.  5  and  180,  does 
not  seem  to  accept  this  view,  and  considers  that  he 
died  in  732.  The  authority  of  Bede's  Continua- 
tor,  supported  by  Symeon  of  Durham,^  are,  how- 
ever, decisive,  and  Alcuin's  De  Pont.  Ebor.,  vv. 
1237,  etc.,  distinctly  refers  to  his  retirement — 

"At  sua  facta  bonus  postquam  compleverat  ille 
Pastor  in  ecclesiis,  specialia  septa  petivit 
Quo  servire  Deo  tota  jam  mente  vacaret,"  etc. 

He  gives  him  a  high  character,  and  his  words 
show  he  was  very  popular  and  much  beloved,  and 
that  he  was  a  lover  of  hospitality  and  a  man 
of  the  world.^  His  words  are  a  paraphrase  of 
Bede's  letter  to  Archbishop  Ecgberht,  and  prove 
what  he  thought  of  him. 

Odo,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  940-959, 
moved  the  remains  of  what  he  supposed  was  the 
body  of  the  great  St.  Wilfrid  to  Canterbury. 
This  was  stoutly  denied  by  the  northern  men, 
and  I  have  discussed  the  matter  on  an  earlier  page. 
The  people  of  York  maintained  that  the  remains 
so  removed  were  those  of  Wilfrid  the  second. 
Eadmer,  however,  says  that  Wilfrid  the  seconds 
remains  were  enshrined  at  Worcester  by  St. 
Oswald.       Wilfrid    was     succeeded    at    York    by 


*  See  Continuator  of  Bede.     Plummer,  i.  p.  362. 
2  Ep.  de  Arch.  Ebor.^  par.  i.,  Rolls  ed.  i.  224. 

*  Raine,  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  York^  i.  p.  385. 


BISHOP  WILFRID  THE  YOUNGER  173 

Ecgberht,  whose  episcopate  forms  no  part  of  my 
subject. 

The  succession  of  Ecgberht  forms,  In  fact,  a 
very  Important  new  departure  In  the  history  of  the 
Northern  Church,  and  eventually  In  that  of  the 
English  Church  also,  for  he  was  the  first  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  all  his  predecessors  having  been 
simply  bishops  of  that  see.  Thenceforward  the 
English  Church  had  two  ecclesiastical  provinces, 
and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ceased  to  be  the 
sole  Metropolitan  of  England. 

We  have  now  followed  the  fortunes  of  the 
Anglian  Church  to  a  notable  point,  and  It  will  be 
opportune  to  close  our  survey  with  Bede's  report 
on  the  condition  of  thlnors  amongr  the  races 
and  communities  beyond  our  borders  when  he 
concluded  his  famous  book  in  731.  He  says  : 
"The  Picts  at  this  time  have  a  treaty  of  peace 
with  the  nation  of  the  Angles,  and  rejoice  In  being 
united  in  Catholic  peace  and  truth  with  the 
Universal  Church.  The  Scots  that  inhabit  Britain, 
satisfied  with  their  own  territories,  meditate  no 
plots  or  conspiracies  against  the  nation  of  the 
Angles.  The  Britons,  though  they  for  the 
most  part,  through  domestic  hatred,  are  adverse 
to  the  nation  of  the  Angles,  and  wrongfully  and 
from  wicked  custom  oppose  the  appointed  Easter 
of  the  whole  Catholic  Church  ;  yet,  from  both  the 
Divine  and  human  power  firmly  withstanding  them, 
they  can  in  no  way  prevail  as  they  desire ;  for 
though  in  part  they  are   their  own   masters,    yet 


174  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

partly  also  they  are  brought   under  subjection   to 
the  English. 

Let  me  finish  in  his  own  exulting  words  :  ''  Hie 
est  impraesentiarmn  tmiversae  status  Brittamae 
anno  adventus  Anglorum  in  Brittaniam  circiter 
ducentissimo  octogesimo  quinto,  Dominicae  autem 
Incarnationis  anno  DCCXXXL ;  in  Cujus  regno 
perpetuo  exsultet  terra,  et  congratulante  in  fide 
ejus  Britannia,  laetentur  insulae  multae  et  confi- 
teantur  memoriae  sanctitatis  ejus, 

1  Bede,  H.E.,  v.  23. 


"  1 


APPENDIX  I 

THE  ROYAL  AND  HIGH-BORN  NUNS 

One  feature  of  the  Early  English  Church  which  is  continually 
present  to  those  who  read  its  history  is  the  large  part  occupied 
by  nuns,  especially  by  nuns  of  high  birth,  in  its  polity.  I  have 
had  to  mention  them  prominently  on  several  occasions,  but  deem 
it  well  to  collect  together  in  a  more  formal  manner  an  account 
of  such  incidents  regarding  them  as  have  not  come  within  the 
general  course  of  my  narrative. 

The  existence  of  women  whose  lives  were  devoted  to 
virginity  and  to  the  services  of  religion,  was  of  course  known  to 
Paganism.  The  Vestal  Virgins  naturally  suggest  themselves  as 
an  example.  When  the  ascetic  life  pervaded  the  Church  with 
its  ideals,  ideals  largely  involving  withdrawal  from  the  world 
and  its  pleasures,  and  devotion  to  penitential  life,  it  is  not 
strange  that  the  more  emotional  sex,  a  sex  prone  to  extravagance 
in  the  pursuit  of  self-sacrifice,  took  an  active  part.  When  the 
hermits  covered  the  Egyptian  deserts  with  their  colonies,  women 
were  represented  among  them  as  were  men,  and  when  St.  Basil 
first  put  order  into  these  devotees  by  associating  them  into 
communities  living  under  a  Rule,  he  provided  for  communities 
of  women  as  well  as  men. 

In  the  West  such  communities  of  women  seem  to  have 
come  into  general  existence  somewhat  later,  and  it  would 
appear  that  even  in  the  time  of  Pope  Gregory  the  Great  a  large 
portion  of  the  nuns — and  there  were,  according  to  his  letters,  3000 
of  them  living  in  Rome  alone — apparently  dedicated  themselves, 
but  lived  in  their  own  houses,  as  his  sisters  and  mother  did. 
In  other  cases  it  would  seem  that  from  early  times  communities 
of  men  and  women  grew  up  side  by  side,  which  was  a  con- 
venient way  of  providing  for  the  services  in  the  nunneries.  In 
either  case,  the  vows  of  virginity  and  obedience  which  accom- 
panied the  dedication  had  to  be  made  in  the  presence  of  a  bishop, 

who  consecrated  and  gave  them  the  necessary  benediction. 

175 


176  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

As  time  went  on  the  necessity  for  more  stringent  Rules  to 
prevent  scandals  when  monasteries  of  the  two  sexes  were 
placed  near  each  other  was  felt.  Several  of  these  Rules  are 
extant,  the  most  famous  of  them  being  those  of  Csesarius, 
Bishop  of  Aries  (502-542)  in  France,  and  of  Archbishop 
Leander  in  Spain. 

When  Ccesarius  composed  his  Rule  the  discipUne  of  the 
female  communities  had  become  very  lax,  and  there  was  con- 
tinual intercourse  between  them  and  the  world  by  letters,  etc., 
while  they  were  accustomed  to  receive  visits  in  private  in  their 
parlours  and  chambers.  They  used  to  ingratiate  themselves 
with  their  male  friends  by  taking  care  of  their  clothes,  wash- 
ing their  linen,  etc.  Given  to  luxury,  they  indulged  in  rich 
carpets  and  coverlets,  purple  dresses,  embroideries,  laces,  and 
delicately  ornamented  serviettes.  Their  houses  had,  as  a  recent 
biographer  of  the  Bishop  says,  "  become  retiring  places  for  widows 
and  young  women  who  wanted  to  escape  marriages  with  un- 
attractive suitors."  They  were  often  a  troop  of  demimondistes 
in  the  guise  of  servants  of  God.  All  this  was  encouraged  by 
the  absence  of  any  effective  Rule.  The  discipline  of  the 
nunneries  was  in  fact  much  looser  than  that  of  the  monks. 
They  were  dependent  on  the  male  clergy  for  all  their  services, 
and  their  houses  were  not  too  closely  overseen  by  the  bishops. 
All  this  must  be  remembered  when  we  judge  of  the  minute 
instructions  in  the  Rule  of  Csesarius. 

St.  Caesarius  was  the  first  person  in  the  West  to  draw  up  a 
Rule  specifically  for  nuns.  It  was  prepared  for  a  convent  at 
Aries  which  was  dedicated  to  St.  John,  and  was  partly  founded 
on  the  Monastic  Rules  in  vogue  at  Lerins,  and  the  works  of 
St.  Augustine  and  Cassian,  and  consisted  of  forty-three  heads, 
of  which  I  will  give  an  abstract. 

I.  This  provided  a  close  claustral  life  until  death  for  the 
nuns,  and  seems  to  have  been  the  first  Rule  with  this  provision. 
Once  a  nun  was  professed,  she  was  not  to  leave  the  nunnery 
till  her  death. 

II.  Swearing  and  the  taking  of  oaths  was  forbidden,  as  the 
venom  of  the  devil  (velut  venenu?n  diaboli). 

III.  No  nun  was  to  be  professed  till  her  real  vocation  had 
been  severely  tested,  and  for  this  purpose  she  was  to  be  placed 
under  a  senior  for  instruction.  It  was  only  on  the  request  and 
report  of  her  directress  that  she  was  (under  the  supervision  of  the 
prioress)  to  take  the  habit  and  join  the  schola  of  the  nuns. 


APPENDIX  I  177 

IV.  Widows  or  those  who  had  left  their  husbands  were  not 
allowed  to  enter  nunneries  until  they  had  divested  themselves 
of  all  their  property  by  gift  or  sale  in  accordance  with  Matthew 
xix.  and  Luke  xxiv.  No  virgin  could  reach  perfection  until  she 
had  surrendered  all  she  possessed,  which  was  styled  "  peculiarity." 
Until  this  was  done  she  was  not  to  receive  the  veil.  Those 
whose  parents  were  still  living,  and  who  for  this  reason  had 
not  obtained  their  patrimony,  were  to  enter  into  an  undertaking 
to  give  it  up  when  they  succeeded  to  it.  No  nun,  not  even  the 
abbess,  was  to  have  a  private  servant.  When  at  work  the 
older  ones  might,  however,  be  helped  by  the  younger  ones. 

V.  Neither  the  children  of  nobles  nor  of  humble  folk  were 
to  be  brought  up  or  taught  in  the  nunneries,  unless  when  they 
were  offered  by  their  parents  with  the  intention  that  they  should 
presently  become  nuns,  and  this  was  not  to  be  till  they  were  six 
or  seven  years  old. 

VI.  No  one  should  work  at  making  anything  unless  at  the 
wish  of  a  senior. 

VII.  No  nun  was  to  have  a  box  or  cupboard  where  she 
could  secrete  any  private  things,  nor  were  they  to  consider  any 
particular  cell  as  their  own,  nor  choose  for  themselves  which  cell 
they  would  have. 

VIII.  They  should  never  speak  with  a  loud  voice 
(Ephesians  iv.).  Nor  was  it  allowed  them  to  talk  or  work 
while  singing  the  psalms. 

IX.  No  nun  was  to  be  a  godmother  to  any  child,  rich  or  poor. 

X.  If  a  nun  came  late  to  prayers  or  to  her  hours  after  the 
summons,  she  was  to  be  reproved,  and  for  a  second  or  third 
offence  was  to  be  excluded  from  communion  (a  commum'one)  and 
from  entertainments. 

XI.  If  any  nun  were  corrected  or  beaten  because  of  a 
fault,  she  was  not  to  complain,  and  if  she  did  so  she  was  to  be 
excluded  from  table  or  from  prayers. 

XII.  Those  who  were  engaged  in  cooking  were  to  be  allowed 
to  drink  a  little  wine.  All  the  sisters  were  to  work  at  their 
menial  duties  in  turn,  except  the  abbess  and  the  prioress. 

XIII.  At  vigils,  in  order  not  to  be  overcome  by  sleep,  they 
might  work  at  something  which  did  not  distract  their  prayers, 
or  stand  up  instead  of  sitting. 

XIV.  When  wool-working,  each  was  to  receive  the  daily 
portion  of  wool  allotted  to  her  with  humility,  and  to  be 
strenuous  at  her  work. 

VOL.  III. — 12 


178  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

XV.  No  one  should  have  any  private  property  either  in 
clothes  or  anything  else. 

XVI.  There  was  to  be  no  grumbling,  for  which  injunction 
Philemon  2  was  quoted;  all  must  obey  the  Mother,  next  to 
God,  and  after  her  the  prioresses.  When  they  were  seated  at 
table  they  were  to  be  silent  and  listen  to  the  reader.  If  it  was 
necessary  to  speak  it  must  be  in  a  whisper.  When  the  reader 
had  finished  they  were  to  meditate. 

XVII.  They  must  all  learn  to  read,  and  spend  two  hours  a 
day,  from  early  morning  till  the  second  hour,  in  reading. 

XVIII.  The  rest  of  the  day  they  must  work  and  not  gossip, 
and  only  talk  for  the  purpose  of  edification  or  the  necessities 
of  work ;  otherwise,  when  at  work,  one  of  the  sisters  was  to  read 
to  them  for  an  hour  until  tierce. 

XIX.  If  any  one  on  joining  the  community  had  some 
possessions  she  was  humbly  to  give  them  up  to  the  Mother  for 
the  common  good.  Those  who  had  nothing  were  not  to  try 
and  appropriate  any  in  the  nunnery.  Those  who  were  better 
off  on  entering  the  monastery  were  not  to  give  themselves  airs 
over  their  poorer  sisters,  but  all  were  to  treat  each  other  as 
equals  and  in  a  sisterly  way. 

XX.  When  singing  hymns  and  psalms  they  must  think  of 
the  words  as  well  as  of  the  music,  and  they  should  meditate  on 
the  Scriptures  during  their  work.  The  sick  were  to  use  every 
effort  for  speedy  recovery,  and  on  regaining  their  strength  were 
to  revert  to  their  ascetic  mode  of  living. 

XXI.  None  of  them  (instigated  by  the  devil)  should  look  at 
men  with  lustful  eyes,  nor  indulge  in  impure  thoughts. 

XXII.  If  a  nun  noticed  another  sister  behaving  indiscreetly 
she  ought  to  reprove  her  privately;  if  this  did  not  suf^ce  she 
was  to  report  the  fact  to  the  Mother,  nor  should  she  be  deemed 
to  have  done  wrong  by  the  others  for  doing  so.  It  was  wrong 
to  remain  silent  when  conscious  of  a  sister  erring.  This  involved 
sharing  her  offence.  It  was  better  she  should  be  punished  in 
her  body  than  that  her  heart  should  suffer. 

XXIII.  If  a  sister  secretly  received  letters  or  presents  from  any 
one  and  it  was  found  out,  she  was  to  be  reported  and  punished. 
Similarly  if  she  sent  letters  or  presents.  If  she  wished  to  send 
something  to  a  relative,  she  must  get  proper  authority  and  then 
dispatch  it  through  the  janitress  or  gatekeeper. 

XXIV.  It  was  right,  as  was  attested  by  Proverbs  xxiii.  and 
Eccl.  XXX.,  that  nuns  who  engaged  in  quarrels  or  altercations,  or 


APPENDIX  I  179 

stole  things,  or  struck  each  other,  "all  which  acts  was  almost 
incredible,"  should  be  punished. 

XXV.  The  stock  of  woollen  clothes  for  the  nuns  was  to  be 
kept  by  the  prioress  and  dispensed  by  her  as  was  necessary. 

XXVI.  There  was  to  be  no  contention  or  jealousy  among 
them  about  their  clothes.  If  any  had  extra  clothes  given  them 
on  account  of  sickness  they  were  to  be  returned  to  the 
registoria  (nun  in  charge  of  the  wardrobes). 

XXVII.  No  one  was  to  engage  in  any  work  not  specially 
authorised  :  they  were  not  to  work  in  private  but  in  company. 

XXVIII.  The  cellarer,  the  janitress,  and  the  keeper  of  the 
wardrobe  were  to  be  selected  not  to  please  any  one,  but  because 
of  her  fitness  and  in  view  of  the  common  good.  No  sister  was 
to  have  either  food  or  drink  by  her  bedside.  No  one  was  to 
secretly  keep  wine  nor  to  have  a  gift  made  of  it,  but  if  sick  she 
was  to  be  supplied  with  it  by  those  in  charge  of  the  duty.  In 
such  cases,  if  the  monastery  did  not  produce  wine  of  good 
quality,  the  abbess  was  to  obtain  it,  so  that  those  who  were  ill 
or  delicate  should  not  suffer. 

XXIX.  Baths  were  not  to  be  forbidden  to  the  sick,  and  were 
to  be  used  by  them  without  murmuring  when  ordered  by  the 
doctor.  Whether  sick  or  well  they  must  obey  the  senior  in  this 
matter,  and  not  have  their  whims  indulged. 

XXX.  In  order  to  take  care  of  the  sick  or  feeble,  some 
one  who  was  faithful  and  gentle  should  be  chosen,  who  should 
obtain  from  the  cellarer  whatever  was  necessary  for  them,  and 
they  should  also  have  a  separate  cook  and  cellarer  if  possible. 
The  cellarer  should  have  charge  of  the  stores  of  wool,  the 
clothes,  books,  and  food,  and  should  undertake  by  swearing 
on  the  Gospels  to  fulfil  her  duties  faithfully  and  without 
murmuring,  and  if  any  of  them  used  or  stored  her  clothes, 
shoes,  or  utensils  carelessly,  she  was  to  be  duly  punished. 

XXXI.  They  were  not  to  indulge  in  quarrels,  and  any  one 
who  injured  a  sister  was  to  be  punished,  and  if  she  persisted 
in  her  evil  ways  she  was  to  live  in  a  secluded  place,  in  charge 
of  a  sister  and  be  put  under  discipline.  The  prioress  who  had 
charge  of  the  discipline  of  the  convent  was  to  use  moderation 
in  her  rebukes,  and  not  to  be  exacting  in  reproving  small  faults, 
but  to  leave  their  punishment  to  God. 

XXXII.  They  were  to  obey  their  "  Mother  "  and  the  prioress 
who  was  set  over  them  without  murmuring.  And  they  were  to 
exercise  their  discipline  with  charity  and  consideration,  and  to 


1 80  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

aim  at  strengthening  the  weak,  correcting  the  timid,  and  fortify- 
ing the  uneasy  and  nervous. 

XXXin.  Above  all  things,  in  order  to  preserve  their  good 
name,  no  man  should  enter  the  secluded  part  of  the  nunnery 
or  its  chapels  except  the  bishop,  the  provisor,  the  priest,  deacon 
and  sub-deacon,  and  one  or  two  readers  of  mature  age  who 
should  perform  the  services.  When,  however,  the  roofs  and  the 
doors  or  windows  were  being  repaired,  and  workmen  were  needed 
for  this  or  similar  work,  they  might  enter  with  the  consent  of  the 
abbess,  otherwise  no  man  was  to  be  admitted. 

XXXIV.  Secular  matrons  or  girls  and  men  in  lay  costume 
were  not  to  enter  the  nunnery. 

XXXV.  When  the  abbess  went  to  the  reception  room  to 
receive  salutations  she  was  to  be  accompanied  by  two  or  three 
sisters  in  order  to  preserve  her  dignity.  If  bishops,  abbots,  or 
other  important  "religious"  wished  to  enter  the  chapel  to  pray, 
they  might  do  so.  The  gates  of  the  monastery  were  to  be 
opened  at  opportune  times. 

XXXVI.  No  nun  was  to  be  present  at  meals  with  bishops, 
abbots,  monks,  clerks,  secular  men  or  women  or  similar  visitors, 
nor  with  the  relatives  of  the  abbess,  either  inside  or  outside  the 
monastery,  nor  w^as  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  nor  the  provisor 
to  hold  a  feast  there.  Religious  women  from  the  city  possessing 
considerable  social  position  were  only  very  rarely  to  be  admitted  ; 
but  if  some  one  came  from  another  city  and  wished  to  see 
the  nunnery,  or  to  see  her  daughter,  and  was  a  religious  person, 
she  might,  with  the  consent  of  the  abbess,  be  present  at  a  meal. 

XXXVII.  If  any  nun  wished  to  see  a  sister  or  a  daughter 
or  other  relative  she  was  to  ask  permission,  and  such  permission 
was  not  to  be  denied  to  her. 

XXXVIIL  The  abbess,  unless  on  account  of  some  infirmity 
or  some  pressing  occupation,  was  not  to  go  outside  the  boundary 
{extra  congregatione7n  penitus  non  reficiatur). 

XXXIX.  The  abbess  and  prioress  as  well  as  the  cellarer 
were  especially  enjoined  that  their  most  pressing  function  was 
to  cherish  and  look  after  the  sick  and  infirm,  and  to  see  that 
they  were  indulged  in  what  was  necessary  for  them  and  in  the 
relaxation  of  all  rules  which  pressed  upon  them. 

XL.  This  Rule  contains  minute  instructions  about  the 
methods  of  dispensing  the  clothes  to  the  nuns,  and  replacing 
old  ones  by  new  ones,  etc.  etc.  The  only  interesting  provision 
in  it  is  that  which  provides  that  these  clothes  were  to  be  simple 


ArPENDIX  I  i8i 

and  of  inconspicuous  colour,  neither  black  nor  white,  but 
cream-coloured  or  of  the  colour  of  the  wool,  and  were  to  be  made 
in  the  monastery  under  the  guidance  of  the  prioress  or  "  laundry- 
maid  "  and  distributed  by  the  Mother  of  the  monastery  as  required. 

XLI.  The  beds  were  to  have  simple  coverlets  and  not 
coloured  or  flowered  ones ;  no  silver  ornaments  were  to  be  used 
in  the  monastery  save  in  the  services. 

XLII.  Feather-work  and  embroidery  and  silk  or  coloured 
or  decorated  vesture  were  to  be  excluded  from  nunneries ;  the 
materials  of  the  nuns'  dresses  were  to  be  simple.  The  only 
ornaments  on  them  were  to  be  crosses,  which  were  to  be  black 
or  cream-coloured,  and  made  of  cloth  or  linen ;  nor  were  veils 
ornamented  with  wax  nor  painted  tablets  to  be  used,  nor  were 
the  walls  of  the  nunnery  nor  the  cells  to  have  any  pictures  on 
them.  In  the  dwellings  of  nuns  things  should  be  looked  at  with 
spiritual  and  not  merely  human  eyes.  If  any  such  forbidden 
things  were  presented  to  the  nunnery  they  were  to  be  sold  for 
the  benefit  of  the  community  or  transferred  to  the  Basilica. 
Embroidery  was  only  to  be  allowed  on  horsecloths  and  napkins, 
and  when  the  abbess  permitted  it.  On  no  account  were  they 
without  the  consent  of  the  abbess  to  wash  or  mend  or  store  or 
dye  the  clothes  of  clerics  or  laics  or  relatives,  nor  of  strange  men 
and  women,  lest  the  good  fame  of  the  monastery  should  suffer. 

XLIII.  This  concluding  clause  was  addressed  to  the  abbess 
and  prioress,  and  especially  enjoined  them  not  to  relax  their  vigil- 
ance in  consequence  of  threats  or  blandishments  or  other  cause. 

In  addition  to  the  Rules  as  just  set  out,  Caesarius  also 
prepared  an  epitome  or  recapitulation.  In  this  some  additional 
provisions  are  contained  to  make  those  already  named  more 
clear.  Inter  alia,  the  assignation  of  a  particular  cell  to  any  nun 
was  forbidden  in  order  to  prevent  her  from  secretly  receiving 
visitors,  either  men  or  women,  nor  was  she  ever  to  speak  alone  nor 
to  correspond  secretly  with  a  man,  even  a  relative.  They  were  not 
to  use  any  clothes  of  a  bright  colour,  as  white  or  black  or  beaver- 
coloured  {bebri?ia),  nor  were  they  to  bind  up  their  hair  very  high. 
They  were  to  do  all  their  work  in  company  and  not  alone. 

The  long  fast  from  Pentecost  to  the  kalends  of  September 
was  to  be  tempered  by  the  abbess  in  the  way  she  deemed  wise. 
From  the  kalends  of  September  to  those  of  November,  the  second, 
fourth,  and  sixth  days  were  to  be  fast  days.  From  the  kalends 
of  November  to  Christmas  day  all  the  days  were  to  be  fast  days 
except  the  festivals  and  Saturdays.     There  was  to  be  a  fast  of 


1 82  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

seven  days  before  Epiphany.  From  Epiphany  to  Quadragesima 
week,  the  fourth  and  sixth  days  were  to  be  fasts.  The  vigils  of 
Easter  and  Epiphany  were  to  be  kept  until  daylight. 

In  regard  to  food.  During  fast  days  it  was  to  be  partaken 
of  three  times  daily.  At  breakfast  only  two  dishes  apiece.  On 
the  great  festivals  certain  dishes  were  to  be  added  at  breakfast. 
On  other  days  in  summer  and  in  autumn  two  only  were  to  be  then 
provided,  at  supper  three  dishes.  The  younger  nuns  were  to 
have  two  dishes  at  all  their  meals.  Meat  was  never  to  be  eaten 
unless  a  nun  was  desperately  ill,  and  it  was  so  ordered;  only 
the  sick  were  to  be  allowed  fowls.  They  were  to  remember 
their  founder  Csesarius  in  all  their  prayers,  public  and  private, 
so  that  he  might  rule  the  church  wisely,  and  for  themselves  that 
they  should  follow  the  vocation  of  pious  virgins  faithfully. 
Lastly,  they  must  take  care  never  to  leave  open  the  door  of 
the  old  baptistery,  or  the  "schola,"  the  weaving-room,  or  the 
turret  near  the  orchard,  nor  should  any  of  them  presume 
to  open  them  without  leave. 

On  the  death  of  an  abbess  no  one  should  support  a  candidate 
for  the  post  on  the  grounds  of  her  relationship,  etc.  etc.,  but 
only  because  she  would  rule  the  convent  wisely  and  prudently. 
Caesarius  bade  them  keep  the  Rule  he  had  given  them  in  its 
minutest  injunctions  and  with  all  their  strength,  and  if  the  abbess 
or  the  prioress  should  at  any  time,  "which  God  forbid,"  endeavour 
to  relax  it,  they  were  to  resist  her,  and  to  bring  her  before  him- 
self for  punishment.  If  any  sister  should  prove  recalcitrant,  she 
must  be  removed  to  a  penitential  cell  and  not  be  allowed  to 
return  till  she  agreed  to  conform. 

It  has  been  remarked  about  these  Rules  that  they  are  very 
meticulous  and  careful  of  small  things,  and  exact  an  extravagant 
austerity  far  removed  from  the  wise  moderation  of  St.  Benedict's 
Rules.  They  doubtless,  however,  formed  the  substantial  part 
of  the  administrative  Rules  of  most  of  the  French  nunneries, 
and  were  perhaps  needed  when  morals  were  generally  very  loose.^ 
Let  us  now  turn  shortly  to  the  Celtic  nunneries. 

The  most  interesting  form  which  Monasticism  took  at  this 
time  was  that  of  the  double  monasteries.  On  this  subject  Mr. 
H.  B.  Workman  has  written  some  paragraphs  which  I  cannot 
improve  upon  and  will  take  the  liberty  of  borrowing.  He  traces 
the  practice  back  to  the  Agapetce,  "female  Christian  ascetics 
who  lived  together  with  men,  though  both  parties  had  taken  the 
^  Migne,  Pat.^  vol.  Ixvii.  pp.  1105  and  ff. 


APPENDIX  I  183 

vows  of  celibacy.  These  spiritual  marriages — possibly  in  origin 
an  attempt  to  substitute  brotherly  love  for  marriage — were  very 
common  with  the  Valentinians,  Montanists,  and  Eucratites,  and 
in  the  third  and  fourth  century  were  held  in  favour  also  in  the 
Catholic  Church,  as  also  with  the  early  saints  of  the  Celtic 
Church.  From  such  spiritual  marriages,  designed  as  an  aid  in 
subduing  the  flesh,  the  step  to  concubinage  was  but  slight. 
By  the  sixth  century  the  worst  construction  was  put  by  both 
populace  and  Church  upon  all  such  connections,  and  every  effort 
was  made  to  stamp  them  out."  ^  These  Agapetce,  however,  were 
only  the  incipient  stages  of  a  movement  which  blossomed  in  the 
later  double  monasteries.  The  title,  says  Work  man,  goes  back  to  the 
time  of  Justinian.  In  these  monasteries  the  Abbess  ruled  over  the 
men,  and  a  society  of  regular  priests  administered  to  the  spiritual 
needs  of  regular  women.  "  At  the  very  rise  of  monasticism,  we 
find  the  sister  of  Pachomius  establishing  a  community  of  nuns  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Nile  opposite  to  her  brother's  monasteries ; 
while  St.  Basil  and  his  sister  Macrina  presided  over  settlements 
of  men  and  women,  separated  only  by  the  river  Iris.  Though 
prohibited  by  the  Council  of  Agde  in  Languedoc,  and  by 
Justinian,  the  system  of  double  monasteries  flourished."  Bede 
implies  the  existence  of  one  in  Rome  {Mofiachum  quendam  de  vicino 
Virginuvi  monasterio  fionmie  Andreani)^  while  S.  Radegunda 
was  head  of  a  famous  Frankish  double  monastery  at  Poictiers." 
Thus  before  the  arrival  of  Columbanus  double  monasteries 
flourished  in  Gaul,  while  after  his  arrival,  we  note  the  rise  of 
some  of  the  largest  and  most  famous,  though  none  of  them 
owed  their  origin  to  the  saint  himself.  "  Examples,"  says 
Workman,  "  are  Remirement,  Soissons,  Jouarre,  Brie,  Chelles,  and 
Andelys ;  the  last  three  were  especially  favoured  by  English 
ladies.^  St.  Boniface  introduced  the  feature  in  Germany,  where 
the  establishments  were  in  several  cases  presided  over  by  nuns 
trained  at  Wimborne."  ^ 

From  the  first  they  flourished  in  the  Celtic  Church,  perhaps 
because  they  were  a  survival  of  the  old  Clan  system,  when  men 
and  women  alike  belonged  to  the  same  religious  community. 
In  Ireland  the  head  of  such  monasteries  was  usually  a  man,  as 
the  head  of  the  Clan  was ;  but  in  the  Scoto-Irish  monasteries  of 
England,  especially  in  those  founded  by  royal  princesses  and 
in  Columban's    double  monasteries  in    Gaul  and  Belgium,  the 

^  Workman,  Evolution  of  Monasticism^  62.  ^  H.E,,  iv.  i. 

*  Bede,  H.E.,  iii.  8.  *  Workman,  op.  cit.  177  and  178. 


1 84  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

monastery  of  clerks  or  priests,  which  was  generally  placed  at  the 
gate  of  the  nunnery,  was  ruled  over  by  the  abbess.  This  singular 
inversion  of  the  normal  relationship  was  due  probably  to  the  fact 
that  in  such  cases  the  real  centre  or  original  foundation  was  the 
nunnery,  but  that  for  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  nuns  as  well 
as  for  the  oversight  of  their  lands  and  estates,  there  grew  up  a 
smaller  dependent  monastery  of  priests  and  lay  brethren.  But 
in  some  monasteries  the  monks  were  in  a  majority.^ 

Archbishop  Theodore  in  some  of  his  Canons  forbids  any  new 
foundations  of  this  description,  though  forced  to  recognise  those 
that  already  existed.  But  his  regulations  were  disregarded,  and 
new  double  monasteries,  e.g.  Wim borne,  were  founded  after  his 
death.  What  the  Archbishop  could  not  do,  the  Danes  accom- 
plished by  their  general  destruction  of  the  monastic  life  of  Eng- 
land at  the  end  of  the  ninth  century,  though  on  the  Continent 
we  find  double  monasteries  existing  until  late  in  the  eleventh 
century.  Among  the  double  monasteries  in  England,  Bardney, 
Barking,  Ely,  Whitby,  and  Coldingham  are  mentioned  by  Bede ; 
others  existed  at  Wimborne,  Repton,  Wenlock,  Wimborne, 
Nuneaton,  and  perhaps  Carlisle.^ 

As  in  later  times,  the  Anglo-Saxon  nunneries  were  of  two 
kinds.  In  one  of  these  classes  the  inmates  consisted  chiefly,  if 
not  entirely,  of  royal  and  noble  ladies,  who,  for  different  reasons, 
sought  them  or  were  put  in  them  by  their  parents.  Among  them 
rigid  asceticism  was  often  disregarded.  They  were,  in  fact,  culti- 
vated homes,  generally  safe  from  outrage  in  very  rough  times, 
where  fathers  put  redundant  daughters  for  whom  husbands  could 
not  be  found,  and  unhappy  wives  and  lonely  widows  consorted 
with  those  of  their  class  and  devoted  themselves  to  church 
embroidery,  copying  and  illuminating  MSB.,  reading  poetry, 
learning  Latin  and  probably  also  French.  These  grand  ladies 
were  dressed  in  rich  habits,  the  costly  character  of  which  was 
supposed  to  be  atoned  for  by  their  orthodox  patterns.  The 
moralists  of  the  time  inveigh  against  such  aristocratic  nuns. 

Aldhelm  attacks  the  luxurious  costumes  of  some  of  the  inmates 
of  both  sexes  in  the  nunnery  at  Barking,  and  notably  of  certain 
abbesses  and  nuns  who  wore  a  fine  linen  undervest  of  violet  and 
over  it  a  scarlet  tunic  with  wide  sleeves  and  hoods  and  cuffs 
trimmed  with  furs  or  silk,  who  curled  their  hair  with  a  hot  iron 
all  round  their  foreheads,  while  golden  ornaments  in  the  shape  of 
crescents  encircled  their  necks,  and  who  changed  their  veils  into  a 
^  Workman,  op.  cit.  178-79.  2  /^_  j^^  ^nd  note. 


APPENDIX  I  185 

head-covering  fastened  with  coloured  ribbons  which  hung  down 
to  their  feet.  Others  sharpened  and  bent  their  nails  like  the  claws 
of  falcons,  wore  shoes  of  red  leather,  and  used  stibium  with  which 
to  paint  their  face.^  These  were  of  course  exceptional  cases,  but 
they  no  doubt  had  a  tendency  to  grow  where  the  inmates  adopted 
the  veil  for  other  motives  than  to  pass  an  ascetic  life.  The  normal 
conditions  prevailing  in  nunneries  at  this  time  are  well  described 
in  the  life  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  nun  named  Leoba,  who  went  from 
Wimborne  to  found  a  nunnery  at  Bischoffsheim  in  Germany,  and 
which  was  written  by  Ralph  of  Fulda. 

He  says  "  there  were  two  monasteries  at  Wimborne,  formerly 
erected  by  the  kings  of  the  country,  which  were  surrounded  by 
strong  and  lofty  walls  and  endowed  with  competent  revenues. 
Of  these,  one  was  designed  for  clerks,  the  other  for  females,  but 
neither  (for  such  was  the  law  of  their  foundation)  was  ever 
entered  by  any  individual  of  the  other  sex.  No  woman  could 
obtain  permission  to  come  into  the  monastery  of  the  men ; 
none  of  the  men  to  come  into  the  convent  of  the  women, 
with  the  exception  of  the  priests  who  entered  to  perform  the 
mass,  and  withdrew  the  minute  the  service  was  over.  If  a 
female,  desirous  of  quitting  the  world,  asked  to  be  admitted 
among  the  sisterhood,  she  could  obtain  her  request,  be  she 
who  she  might,  on  this  condition  only,  that  she  should  never 
seek  to  go  out  unless  it  were  on  some  extraordinary  occa- 
sion which  might  seem  to  justify  such  indulgence.  Even  the 
abbess  herself,  if  it  were  necessary  that  she  should  receive  advice 
or  give  orders,  spoke  to  men  through  a  window ;  and  so  desirous 
was  Leoba  to  remove  all  opportunity  of  conversation  between 
the  sisters  and  persons  of  the  other  sex,  that  she  refused  entrance 
into  the  convent,  not  only  to  laymen  and  clergymen,  but  even  to 
the  bishops  themselves."  ^  Bede,  in  speaking  of  the  monastery 
of  Barking  in  Essex,  mentions  the  plague  as  raging  in  that  part 
of  the  building  occupied  by  the  men  "  before  it  reached  that 
other  part  where  a  crowd  of  the  maidens  of  God  lived."  ^ 

The  first  English  nun  who  is  recorded  was  yEthelberga,  the 
daughter  of  King  ^thelberht,  who,  on  the  death  of  her  husband 
^dwin,  king  of  Northumbria,  in  633,  returned  to  Kent,  where 
she  founded  a  small  nunnery  at  Lyminge,  doubtless  based  on  the 

^  De  laudibus  Virg.y  307  and  364. 

^  Vit.  S.  Leobae.     See  Lingard,  Aug.  Sax.  Churchy  i,  213  and  214. 
'  Qua  ancillarum  Dei  caierva  a  virorum  erat  secreta  contubcniio,  p.  214, 
note  I. 


1 86  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

pattern  of  those  in  Gaul.  There  she  took  the  veil,  and  there  she 
died  in  647.1  She  was  a  friend  and  perhaps  a  relation  of  King 
Dagobert. 

Not  long  afterwards  her  niece  Eanswitha,  the  daughter  of 
King  Eadbald,  founded  another  small  nunnery  at  Folkestone, 
doubtless  of  the  same  type,  and  of  which  she  became  the  abbess.^ 
Two  popular  tales  are  told  of  her — namely,  that  she  tamed  flocks 
of  wild  geese  which  spoilt  her  harvests,  some  of  which  her 
servants  stole  from  her  poultry  yard  and  ate,  to  her  great  dis- 
pleasure. Secondly,  with  the  tip  of  her  crozier  she  dug  a  canal 
to  bring  a  stream  of  fresh  water  which  was  needed  for  the 
monastery,  and  which  was  miraculously  made  to  run  uphill  from 
Swilton,  a  mile  from  Folkestone.^  A  fragment  of  her  Office  is 
still  extant  and  was  published  by  the  BoUandists,  showing  that 
her  nunnery  must  have  lived  long.  The  church  which  she  built, 
and  which  was  overwhelmed  by  the  Danes,  was  rebuilt  by  John 
de  Segrave  and  his  wife  Juliana  de  Sandwich  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  was  then  dedicated  to  St.  Peter  and  St.  Eanswitha.* 

A  leaden  reliquary  containing  some  of  her  bones  is  preserved 
at  Folkestone.^ 

The  next  venture,  in  the  same  way,  was  made  in  Northumbria 
by  Heiu.  The  name  has  not  an  English  look,  and  it  may  well 
be  that  she  was  of  Celtic  origin — perhaps  a  Briton  from  Elmet 
in  West  Yorkshire.  Bede  says  she  was  the  first  woman  in 
Northumbria  who  was  reputed  to  have  been  a  nun,  and  adds  that 
she  was  veiled  and  consecrated  by  Bishop  Aidan.^  She  founded 
a  nunnery  about  650  at  a  place  called  Heruteu,  which  Bede 
explains  as  meaning  the  island  of  the  hart,'^  but  which  really 
means  Hartwater.  Florence  of  Worcester  calls  it  Heortesig.^ 
It  is  now  known  as  Hartlepool. 

Soon  afterwards  Heiu  retired  to  Calcaria  (which,  says  Bede, 
was  called  Kaelcacaestir  by  the  Anglians),  and  there  dwelt.^  She 
left  her  Hartlepool  nunnery  in  charge  of  Hilda.  Calcaria  is 
represented  by  the  modern  Tadcaster,  about  six  miles  from  York. 
Conterminous  with  the  parish  of  Tadcaster,  says  Father  D. 
Haigh,  is  the  chapelry  of  Healaugh  (anciently  Helegh,  and  still 
pronounced  Heeley) ;  Healaugh  Hall,  close  to  the  river ;  and 
Healaugh  Manor,  on  the  site  of  an  ancient  priory,  about  two  miles 

^  Vide  Howorth,  St.  Augustine  of  Canterbury,  329-32. 

^  ^^'  333-34-  ^  Hardy,  Cat.,  i.  pp.  228,  229,  and  382. 

■*  Montalembert,  Engl,  ed,,  v.  258. 

^  I  gave  a  picture  of  it  in  my  volume  on  Augustine  the  Missionary,  p.  334. 

«  Bede,  iv.  23.        '  lb.  iii.  24.        «  M.H.B.,  531.        »  Op.  cit.  iv.  23. 


Ivory  Tablet  commemorating  St.  Eanswttha. 


[IW.  III.,  facing  p.  i86. 


APPENDIX  I  187 

north  by  east.  He  explains  the  name  Healaugh  as  meaning  the 
domain  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Heiu,  and  adds  that  "it  is  not 
improbable  that  the  chapel,  to  the  north-east  of  which  there  are  ex- 
tensive remains  as  well  as  the  priory,  stands  on  the  sites  of  earlier 
buildings  of  St.  Heiu's  monastery.  In  the  course  of  digging  a 
vault  in  the  cemetery  at  Healaugh  many  years  ago,  a  broken 
tombstone  was  found  six  feet  below  the  surface.  The  design  is 
very  peculiar,  consisting  of  a  composition  of  circles,  all  scratched 
slightly  with  a  compass  and  a  cross  roughly  formed  by  triple 
lines.     The  inscription  gives  two  names  thus  disposed 

MA  HE 

D  V  G  V 

"The  name  to  the  left  is  certainly  Celtic,  either  British  or 
Scotic.  Several  churches  in  Wales  are  dedicated  to  St.  Madoc, 
while  a  Maedhog  died  Bishop  of  Ferns  in  a.d.  632. 

"  The  name  to  the  right  wants  but  one  letter  to  correspond 
with  the  one  to  the  left  and  to  complete  the  name  Heiu,  and  the 
stone  is  broken  away  where  this  should  be."  It  seems  to  me 
that  Father  Haigh  has  made  out  a  conclusive  case,  and  that  this 
cross  can  only  be  that  of  Abbess  Heiu.^  Its  primitive  style  also 
points  to  the  seventh  century,  and  we  may  reasonably  conclude 
that  Abbess  Heiu  was  buried  at  Hartlepool. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  another  and  more  famous  nun,  who 
succeeded  Heiu  as  Abbess  of  Heruteu.  Bede  says  that  Hilda 
or  Hild  was  nobly  born  and  was  the  daughter  of  Hereric, 
the  nephew  {nepos  2)  of  King  ^dwin.  Her  mother  was  called 
Bregusuid  or  Bersuitha.  Hereric  for  some  unexplained  reason 
lived  as  an  exile  with  Cerdic,  the  British  chief  of  the  district 
of  Elmet  (near  Leeds).  Probably,  like  the  rest  of  the  royal 
family  of  Deira,  he  had  been  exiled  by  ^thelfrid,  king  of  Bernicia, 
and  it  was  perhaps  at  the  instance  of  the  latter  that,  as  Bede 
tells  us,  he  was  poisoned  while  at  Elmet.  Upon  this,  his  widow 
doubtless  returned  to  Deira,  taking  with  her  her  daughter  Hilda 
and  the  latter's  elder  sister  Heresuitha.  Bede  tells  us  that  when 
Hilda  was  still  a  child,  her  mother  Bregusuid  had  a  dream  in 
which  it  seemed  as  if  she  was  looking  diligently  for  her  husband 
Hereric,  but  could  not  find  him  anywhere.  Having  exhausted 
all  her  ingenuity  in  the  search,  she  suddenly  found  a  most 
precious  jewel  under  her  garment,  which  while  she  was  looking 

^  See  Yorks.  Arch,  and  Top.  Society^ s  Journal ,  vol.  iii.  pp.  363-65. 
^  Both  Father  Haigh  and  Mr.  Plummer  agree  that  the  dates  compel  us  to 
translate  nepos  here  by  nephew  and  not  by  grandson. 


1 88  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

on    it    very  attentively  cast   such    a   light    that  it   spread    itself 

throughout  all  Britain,  which  dream,  says  Bede,  was  brought  to 

pass  in  her  daughter,  whose  life  was  such  an  example  to  all  who 

wished  to  live  well.^     He  adds  that  Hilda  died  in  the  year  680 

at  the  age  of  sixty-six.^     She  must  therefore  have  been  born 

in  614.     She  was  probably  baptized  by  Paulinus  at  York,  with 

King  ^dwin  and  the  rest  of  his  family.^     According  to  Florence, 

who  is  followed  by  Plummer  of  Worcester,  Heresuitha  married 

^thelhere,  the  brother  of  Anna,  king  of  East  Anglia.     I  am  now 

disposed  to  think  this  is  a  mistake,     ^^thelhere  was  a  pagan,  and 

the  Liber  Eliensis  distinctly  makes  her  the  wife  of  Anna,  as  Smith 

does  in  his  notes  to  chapter  v.  of  Bede's  lI.E.     She  apparently 

left  him  before  his  death,  since  Bede  expressly  says  she  was  living 

in  a  monastery  in  647,  and  Anna  was  then  still  king.     Nennius 

calls  ^thelhere,  Edric,^  which  is  confirmed  by  the  genealogy  in 

the  Textus  Roffensis^  which  calls  him  ^therric.     Haigh  urges  that 

this  form  is  right.^     By  her  husband  she  became  the  mother  of 

Aldwulf,  afterwards  king  of  the  East  Angles.*^     Heresuitha  was 

apparently  the  first  distinguished  East  Anglian  lady  to  enter  a 

Frankish  monastery.    Bede  says  this  was  the  monastery  of  "  Cale  " 

{i.e.  Chelles),'^  but  he  must  have  mistaken  the    name,  for  that 

establishment  was  not  founded  till  662.     Presently  the  French 

nunneries  became  famous  resorts  of  English  ladies.    Bede  expressly 

says  :  Multi  de  Britannia  monachicae  conversationis  gratia^  Fran- 

corum  Del  Galliaru7n  monasteria  adire  solebant ;  sed  et  filias  suas 

eisdem  erudiendas,  ac  sponso  caelesti  copuIa?idas  ??iitteba?it.^ 

Let  us  return  to  Hilda.  We  do  not  hear  anything  of  her 
after  her  baptism  till  she  was  thirty-three  years  old,  when  she 
determined  to  adopt  a  religious  life.  Bede,  as  Haigh  says,  never 
calls  her  a  virgin  as  he  does  her  successor,  and  he  thinks  it  extra- 
ordinary if  in  those  times  she  reached  the  age  of  thirty-three 
without  marriage  or  religious  consecration,  and  therefore  argues 
that  in  647  she  was  a  widow.^ 

Attracted  by  the  reputation  of  the  French  nunneries,  she 
made  up  her  mind  to  join  her  sister  in  one  of  them.  She  set 
out  thither ;  but  if  Bede's  words  are  to  be  taken  literally,  she  did 
not  actually  go  to  France,  but  apparently  to  East  Anglia.     She 

^  Op.  cit.  iv.  23.       2  lb.       ^  See  Howorth,  Augustine  the  Missionary^  262. 
*  M.H.B.,  75.         ''  Op.  cit.  p.  352.  6  See  Plummer,  Bede,  ii.  244. 

'This  was  a  Royal  city  on  the  Marne,  described  as  about  100  stadia  from 
Paris.     Bercen  Bathildis  built  a  nunnery  there  {M.H.B.,  180,  note). 
«  Bede,  H.E.,  iii.  8.  ^  Op.  cit,  354. 


',      A  ""-^i. 


Oj;l-<:S>-,% 


This  fragment  was  found  with  the  others  at  Hartlepool.  The  only  remains  of 
the  inscription  read  "  .  .  /  equiescj^t  'hoc  lo'co."  To  whom  it  was  erected 
we  do  not  know,  but  it  belongs  to  the  same  time. 


i^ 


Memorial  of  Heiu. 


Monument  of  Breglslid.  Mother  of  Sr.  Hilda. 


[IW.  III.,  facing  p.  1 55. 


Ml'.'.   c"(ir''."- 

I    ;■.;,!.  Ill  I,'  '  '  '' 

aili;.'. '.•i\r-i  ill 


'all/ 


■  ^I'n  I  • 


('}.'h 


Kil^^^^^ 


L;''fii,(r'<.v>!' 


■I' 


,r:i  t' 


-J  '■■*- 


gPiiJ J.ft»a^g;sBtjL?.~#. 


114 


*it:i 


•'■;  uii.-. 


i"if 


Cross  of  IIildithryth,  or  St.  Hilda. 


(/'<'/.  1 1 1. ^  facing  p.  1 83. 


Cross  of  Hildegyth. 


[I'ol.  III.,  facing  p.  1 83. 


APPENDIX  I  189 

did  not  stay  there  long,  however :  twelve  months  later  she  was 
summoned  home  again  to  Northumbria  by  St.  Aidan.  There 
she  accepted  the  gift  of  a  piece  of  land  sufficient  to  maintain  a 
family.  This  is  called  a  hiwscipe  (and  not,  as  usual,  a  hide)  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  translation  of  Bede.  She  lived  a  secluded 
life  for  a  year  with  some  companions,  and,  as  we  have  seen, 
moved  to  Hartlepool  when  Heiu  went  to  Tadcaster.  There  she 
began  to  put  things  in  order  and  to  introduce  a  Rule.  She  had 
the  help  of  learned  men,  and  was  frequently  visited  by  Bishop 
Aidan. ^  In  the  year  653,  while  she  was  at  Hartlepool,  King  Oswy, 
who  had  dedicated  his  little  daughter  ^Ifleda  (then  only  a  year 
old)  to  God,  in  case  he  should  defeat  Penda  in  the  battle  of 
the  Winwaed,  put  the  latter  in  charge  of  Hilda,  who  thus  became 
her  foster-mother.2  At  the  same  time  he  made  over  to  the  Church 
twelve  small  portions  of  land  (diwdecim  possessiuncults  errartum, 
called  twelve  boclands  in  the  A.S.  translation),  six  of  which  were 
in  Deira  and  six  in  Bernicia.  Each  of  these  portions  contained 
ten  f  milies  {i.e.  consisted  of  ten  hides),  making  one  hundred 
and  twenty  in  all.  Bede  implies  that  the  king  intended  twelve 
monasteries  to  be  built  on  these  twelve  portions  of  land.^ 

Before  pursuing  the  career  of  Hilda  in  another  sphere,  it 
will  be  convenient  to  collect  some  interesting  and  not  too 
familiar  notes  on  some  of  the  earlier  inmates  of  the  monastery 
at  Hartlepool.  The  site  of  what  was  no  doubt  its  cemetery  was 
accidentally  discovered  in  1833  ^^  digging  some  foundations  for 
houses  in  a  field  called  the  "Cross  field,"  probably  from  a 
monumental  cross  once  standing  there,  and  situated  about  135 
yards  south-east  of  the  ruins  of  the  Friary  (additional  traces  were 
found  in  1838  and  1843).  At  the  depth  of  3 J  feet  from  the 
surface,  several  skeletons,  male  and  female,  of  tall  stature  were 
found  lying  in  rows  on  the  surface  of  the  limestone  rock  in 
a  direction  north  and  south.  Small  flat  stones  from  five  to 
six  inches  square  were  placed  under  their  heads  as  if  they 
were  pillows.  Other  stones  marked  with  crosses  and  inscribed 
were  found  with  some  of  them.  Nine  of  these  latter  are  known, 
but  it  is  possible  there  may  have  been  others  which  were  lost. 
The  crosses  in  question  are  incised  on  the  small  slabs  of  stone, 
and,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  plate,  are  in  simple  taste.  They 
generally  resemble  Irish  crosses  of  the  same  type  and  workman- 
ship. They  were  first  figured  by  Father  Haigh  in  a  paper  in 
Xho.  Journal  of  the  Archceological  Association^  vol.  i.  pp.  193-195. 
*  BedCy  iv.  ch.  23.  ^  lb.  iii.  24.  ^  Op.  cit.  iii.  24. 


190  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

One  of  the  crosses  was  of  a  very  peculiar  form,  each  limb 
being  graced  with  a  glory  such  as  is  found  round  the  heads  of 
holy  personages  on  some  early  Northumbrian  carvings  and  coins. 
"  The  inscription  below  the  transom  of  the  cross,"  says  Haigh,  "  is 
•  •  •  guguid  (certainly  iox  gusuid;  suidox  suith  is  very  common  as 
the  final  element  in  the  names  of  women,  while ^w/^  or  guith  never 
occurs)."  The  first  letters  of  the  name  have  weathered  away, 
but  as  Haigh,  a  most  experienced  judge  in  such  matters,  says,  there 
is  no  possibility  of  restoring  what  is  lost  so  as  to  get  a  true  Anglian 
name  other  than  Bregusuid.  With  this  stone  were  found  two 
skeletons,  the  head  of  each  resting  on  a  plain  stone  about  five 
inches  square.  The  stone  here  described,  says  Haigh,  is 
apparently  the  earliest  of  the  series.  "  It  is  undoubtedly  the 
memorial  of  Bregusuid,  the  mother  of  Hilda."  She  is  called 
Beorhtsuith  by  Florence  of  Worcester,  and  Bertcsuid  in  the  Liber 
Vitce.  Above  the  transom  are  some  detached  letters.  The  whole 
when  complete  is  certainly  to  be  read  (Ora)te  p(ro)  Bregusuid. 

We  will  now  turn  to  two  other  stones,  which,  like  the  one  just 
described,  are  much  larger  than  the  rest.  One  of  these  bears  the 
name  Hildithryth  in  runes,  which  Haigh  identifies  as  the  grave- 
stone of  St.  Hilda  herself.  He  argues  that  Hilda  is  really  not 
a  complete  name.  As  in  other  cases,  such  as  Cutha  for  Cuthwulf 
in  the  Eng.  Chron.^  Guana  for  Conrad  in  the  Chronicon  Scotorum^ 
and  Leoba  for  St.  Leobgyth,  one  of  St.  Boniface's  disciples, 
and  at  one  time  a  nun  at  Wimborne,  the  first  syllable  has  been 
similarly  used  in  the  case  of  Hild  instead  of  her  full  name. 

I  would  add  to  Haigh's  arguments  another  which  strikes  me 
as  very  forcible,  namely,  that  Hild  was  the  name  of  the  goddess 
of  war  among  the  pagan  Saxons,  and  an  individual  would  hardly 
be  named  after  the  goddess  without  some  qualifying  particle. 

Haigh  accordingly  argues  that  the  name  of  Hildithryth,  which 
occurs  on  one  of  the  two  bigger  stones  just  mentioned,  was 
really  St.  Hilda's  full  name.  He  mentions  that  in  the  famous 
Liber  Vitce  now  at  Durham,  one  section  of  which  he  claims  to 
have  been  compiled  at  Lindisfarne  in  the  latter  half  of  the  ninth 
century  and  which  contains  a  list  of  the  most  famous  saints  and 
saintly  people  in  the  north  who  had  been  benefactors  of  the 
monastery,  the  name  of  Hild  or  Hilda  does  not  occur  alone,  but 
only  in  such  forms  as  Hildithryth,  Wulfhild,  Tidhild,  Hildiberht, 
Hildiwald,  etc.,  and  he  says  very  conclusively  that  the  name  of  the 
great  abbess  of  Heruteu  and  Strenaeshalh  would  certainly  not 
have  been  omitted  from  its  list  of  queens  and  abbesses.     Now  it  is 


s 


c 
5 


AITENDIX  I  191 

very  curious  that  while  the  name  of  Hild  or  Hilda  does  not 
occur  in  it,  the  name  of  Hildithryth,  which  is  not  recorded  in 
that  form  by  Bede  or  elsewhere  in  early  literature,  does  occur. 

I  would  add  still  another  argument  to  the  strong  ones  made 
use  of  by  Haigh.  Bede,  in  speaking  of  the  famous  people  who  had 
been  interred  at  Whitby,  does  not  mention  St.  Hilda  at  all,  which 
is  incredible  if  she  had  been  buried  there,  and  it  is  indeed  almost 
certain  that  she  was  buried  beside  her  mother  at  her  own  early 
foundation  at  Hartlepool,  and  that  her  full  name  was  HildiSryth. 

On  another  stone  there  is  another  similar  name  also  in  runes 
(J.e.  Hilddigyth),  doubtless  representing  some  distinguished  nun 
or  abbess  otherwise  unrecorded.  The  name  is  one  of  a  series 
of  five  which  occurs  twice  in  the  Liber  Vitce. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  another  of  the  larger  gravestones,  which 
is  inscribed  with  the  name  Berchtgyth.  It  seems  probable  that 
when  Hilda  removed  to  her  new  foundation  at  Whitby,  Berchtgyth 
took  her  place  at  Hartlepool.  That  she  was  connected  by  a  close 
tie  with  the  two  abbesses  commemorated  on  the  other  larger 
gravestones  is  more  than  suggested  by  the  fact  that  in  the 
Liber  Vitce  the  three  names  BerchtsuiS,  Hildithryth,  and 
Berchtgyth  follow  each  other. 

Haigh  identifies  this  last  abbess  with  a  Berthgyth  whose 
letters  written  to  her  brother  Balthard  are  preserved  in  the  great 
collection  of  the  letters  of  Boniface.^  In  the  first  one  she 
speaks  of  her  affection  for  her  brother,  and  how  she  was  left 
alone  and  deprived  of  the  help  of  her  kindred.  "  My  father  and 
mother,"  she  says,  "  have  left  me,  but  God  has  taken  care  of  me." 
"  Many  gatherings  of  the  water  are  between  me  and  thee ;  let 
us,  however,  be  united  in  love  which  knows  no  special  locality. 
I  implore  thee,  dearest  brother,  either  to  come  to  me,  or  to 
contrive  that  I  may  come  to  thee,  so  that  I  may  see  thee  before 
I  die."  In  the  second  letter  she  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  a 
letter  and  of  presents  from  Balthard  which  had  been  brought 
to  her  by  a  certain  Aldred  who  was  taking  back  her  reply.  She 
again  urges  him  to  go  and  see  her.  "  When  I  hear  of  and  see 
others  going  to  their  friends,  I  remember  how  I  was  abandoned 
by  my  relatives  when  I  was  young  and  remained  alone.  Yet 
God  did  not  desert  me.  If  thou  wouldst  come  and  see  me  I 
would  remain  contentedly  where  I  am  ;  otherwise  I  shall  return 
to  my  relatives."  She  ends  her  letter  by  saying  she  was  sending 
him  a  small  gift,  namely  a  witfa  (?).  There  is  a  third  letter  extant 
^  Ed.  E.  Dummlcr,  Nos.  147  and  148. 


192  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

in  which  neither  her  name  nor  that  of  her  brother  occurs.  It 
is  in  the  same  querulous  tone,  and  was  obviously  written  by  the 
same  writer.  In  this  she  calls  herself  ultima  ancillarum  Dei^ 
The  Magdeburg  Centuriators  have  identified  this  Balthard  with 
one  who  became  Abbot  of  Hersfeld  in  Germany  and  died  in  796.2 

On  another  of  the  stones  at  Hartlepool  is  a  name  read 
Kanegut  by  Haigh,  of  which  I  can  make  nothing.  No  name  like 
it  occurs  in  the  Liber  Viice^  and  it  seems  to  me  to  have  been  mis- 
read. Father  Haigh  associates  it  with  a  name  occurring  in  one  of 
Boniface's  letters  which  he  reads  Kanegnub.  This  will  not  pass, 
however.  The  latter  name  is  not  Kanegnub  but  really  Kuniburga, 
as  it  is  written  in  Diimmler's  edition  of  the  correspondence. 

Three  other  names  occur  on  two  other  of  these  small  stones, 
all  of  men — namely,  Edilwini,  Wermund,  and  Torhtsid.^  I  have 
discussed  these  on  another  page. 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  Abbess  Hilda.  About  the  year 
658  she  undertook  to  build  a  more  stately  monastery  at  a  place 
called  Streoneshalch.  Bede  gives  an  etymology  of  this  name 
which  has  greatly  exercised  the  philologists,  and  they  are  agreed 
that  the  meaning  he  gives  is  quite  an  impossible  one — namely, 
si?ius-phari,  or  the  bay  of  the  lighthouse.  My  friend  the  Rev. 
J.  C.  Atkinson,  who  wrote  the  history  of  Cleveland,  and  was  a 
trustworthy  scholar,  considered  Streone  to  be  a  personal  name, 
and  translated  hale  by  hall  or  hollow.  "The  name  Dimuldehale 
occurs  in  the  Whitby  register,  but  it  cannot  be  identified. 
Strensall  near  York  may  also  be  compared  with  it."*  It  has 
been  suggested  that  Hilda's  choice  of  a  site  was  inspired  by  the 
taste  of  her  Scotic  teachers  from  lona,  who  preferred  a  solitary 
coast  and  its  islands  to  the  secluded  valleys  and  lonely  rustic 
places  more  generally  chosen  as  sites  for  religious  houses  at  a 
later  time,  and  in  which  she  was  imitating  St.  Aidan  at  Lindis- 
farne  and  St.  Cuthbert  at  Fame  Island.  The  site  was  in  any  case 
a  splendid  one,  the  first  to  be  seen  by  seamen  when  returning 
home,  and  the  last  they  would  miss  in  leaving  it,  while  the  lights 
from  its  windows  must  often  have  served  them  for  a  beacon. 

The  monastery,  like  many  other  foundations  of  the  time, 

^  Ed.  E.  Dummler,  No.  143. 

^  lb.  p.  428,  note  2.         '  Yorks.  Arch,  and  Top.  Journal,  iii.  pp.  364-70. 

*  Murray's  Yorkshire,  ed.  1 874,  p.  214.  Stopford  Brooke  says  :  ^^  Streon 
is  not  an  English  word,  or  this  is  the  only  place  where  it  occurs  ;  and  healh  or 
halh  is  a  word  of  doubtful  meaning,  and  when  it  seems  to  occur  in  the  charters 
has  never  llie  meaning  of  angle  or  bay  or  corner"  {Hist,  of  Eng.  Lit.^  66, 
note  i). 


APPENDIX   I  193 

was  a  double  one  for  men  and  women,  she  herself,  "  Mother 
Hilda,"  as  they  called  her,  presiding  over  both.  In  this  and  in 
other  respects  its  life  and  discipline  were  no  doubt  like  those  of 
other  Celtic  monasteries.  Bede  says  that  her  new  monastery  was 
placed  by  Hilda  under  a  strict  Rule,  where  the  rigid  observance 
of  justice  and  piety,  charity  and  other  virtues,  was  enacted,  and 
particularly  that  of  peace  and  love,  "so  that,  after  the  manner  of 
the  primitive  church,  no  one  there  was  rich  and  no  one  poor,  7ione 
having  any  property  but  all  having  their  wealth  in  common.^^  Her 
wisdom  and  prudence  were  so  famed,  says  Bede,  that  kings  and 
princes  sometimes  sought  her  advice ;  and  so  skilled  were  her 
pupils  in  Scripture  and  the  ways  of  justice  that  many  of  them 
were  fit  to  undertake  ecclesiastical  duties  and  even  to  serve  at 
the  altar.  Five  bishops,  in  fact,  were  trained  in  her  monastery — 
namely,  Bosa,  ^tla,  John,  Wilfrid  the  second,  and  Oftfor.  The 
first  became  Bishop  of  York,  the  second  Bishop  of  Dorchester 
the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  secured  the  sees  of  Hexham  and 
that  of  York ;  while  the  last,  Oftfor,  having  devoted  himself 
to  learning  in  the  Abbess  Hilda's  two  monasteries  first,  went  to 
Kent,  where  he  studied  for  a  while  under  Archbishop  Theodore, 
then  on  to  Rome,  and  returning  again,  presided  over  the  province 
of  the  Hwiccas  {i.e.  Worcestershire).^ 

A  much  humbler  but  far  more  famous  person  who  was  a 
protege  of  St.  Hilda  and  a  scholar  in  her  monastery  was 
Ccedmon,  the  first  English  poet  of  whom  we  have  any  record. 
We  shall  have  more  to  say  about  him  in  the  third  appendix. 

The  abbey  of  Streoneshalch  also  became  a  famous  burial- 
place  for  great  people.  In  its  church  of  St.  Peter  there  lay, 
says  Bede,  King  ^dwin,  King  Oswy,  his  wife  /Eanfled  and  their 
daughter  ^Ifleda,  and  many  other  grandees,^  all  of  whose  remains 
were  doubtless  destroyed  in  the  pitiless  attack  of  the  Danes  two 
centuries  later.  No  trace  of  the  remains  of  St.  Hilda's  famous 
monastery  remains  except  a  rubbish  heap  where  the  old  monks 
put  their  broken  pots  and  other  debris.  Father  Haigh  thus 
describes  it :  "  On  the  upper  shelves  of  the  cliff,  the  deposit 
consisted  of  birds'  bones,  and  oyster,  whelk,  and  periwinkle  shells  ; 
among  which  was  found  a  comb  with  a  runic  inscription,  a  second 
comb  with  two  sets  of  teeth  finely  cut,  and  a  large  number  of 
bones  of  skulls  of  oxen,  sheep,  and  goats,  and  horns  of  deer  and 
tusks  of  swine,  three  pot-hooks  of  iron,  a  double  meat-hook,  a 
hoe,  a  scraper  of  iron,  a  small  shovel,  half  a  glass  bead,  some 
^  Bede^  iv.  23.  '  lb.  iii.  24. 

VOL.  III. — 13 


1 94  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

broken  coarse  pottery,  a  spindle  whorl,  an  ink-horn,  two  "  styles  " 
of  bone  for  writing  on  wax  tablets,  and  lastly,  and  most  important 
of  all,  a  leaden  bulla  inscribed  BONIFACH  on  one  side  and 
ARCHIDLA.C  on  the  other.  This  has  been  identified  with 
great  probability  with  a  bulla  attached  to  some  document  issued 
at  Rome  by  St.  Wilfrid's  friend,  Archdeacon  Boniface."  ^ 

The  most  notable  event  in  the  history  of  the  abbey  was 
the  famous  synod  which  took  its  name  from  it,  which  met  there 
in  the  year  664,  and  at  which  Abbess  Hilda  was  present.  There 
she  is  reported  to  have  taken  sides  against  the  Roman  party 
and  in  favour  of  the  Celtic  view  on  the  great  question  of  the 
right  time  for  celebrating  Easter.  I  have  described  the  synod 
at  length  in  an  earlier  page.^  In  my  account,  I  ventured  to 
suggest  that  Agatho,  who  was  present  there  as  chaplain  to 
Bishop  Agilberht,  was  very  probably  the  well-known  Pope  of 
the  name.  I  find  that  this  view,  which  I  thought  had  not 
been  urged  before,  had  already  occurred  to  Father  Haigh.  His 
words  are:  "We  must  believe  .  .  .  that  this  Agatho  is  no  other 
than  he  who  was  raised  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  in  678.  At 
the  time  of  the  synod  no  doubt  he  would  be  one  of  the  leading 
clergy  of  Rome,  and  his  coming  to  the  synod  with  Agilbert 
suggests  a  probability  almost  amounting  to  certainty  that  they 
were  entrusted  with  a  special  mission  from  Rome  to  endeavour 
to  bring  the  Northumbrian  Church  into  conformity."^  The 
fact  of  Pope  Agatho  having  been  present  at  this  synod  would 
explain  the  complacent  attitude  adopted  by  him  towards 
Wilfrid  after  he  became  Pope. 

When  the  synod  at  Whitby  had  finally  decided  the  question 
discussed  there,  the  Abbess  Hilda,  like  Bishop  Ceadda, 
acquiesced  in  its  decision.  She  also  took  the  side  of  Arch- 
bishop Theodore  against  Wilfrid,  and  joined  with  him  in  the 
appeal  to  Rome  against  him.^ 

We  cannot  avoid  the  thought,  as  we  follow  her  career,  that 
through  the  medium  of  the  Church,  women  were  able  to  fill 
much  more  potent  and  influential  roles  in  the  world's  economy 
in  the  seventh  century  than  might  be  supposed  from  the  rough 
times  in  which  they  lived.  She  was  certainly  one  of  the  most 
notable  women  in  history.     At  length  her  strength  broke  down. 

^  Haigh,  Yorks.  Arch,  and  Top.  Soc.  Journ.,  iii.  370  and  371,  where  a 
figure  of  the  bulla  is  given. 

'  AniCy  i.  185-196.  3  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.,  iii.  355. 

*  See  iEddi,  op.  cit.  ch.  54. 


APPENDIX  I  195 

Bede  describes  her  as  suffering  from  a  kind  of  recurrent  fever, 
which  came  back  annually  for  six  years,  and  which  at  length 
overwhelmed  her.  Summoning  her  handmaidens  at  cock- 
crowing,  she  passed  away  while  she  was  exhorting  them  ;  and 
and  the  same  night,  Bede  tells  us,  her  death  was  revealed  by  a 
kind  of  second  sight  in  another  monastery  she  had  built  that 
very  year  at  Hacanos  {i.e.  Hackness,  near  Whitby).  There  was 
at  the  time  a  certain  nun  called  Begu,  or  Bega,  who  had  been 
in  religion  for  thirty  years.  She  was  asleep  in  the  dormitory  of 
the  sisters  at  Hackness  when  suddenly  she  heard  a  well-known 
sound  in  the  air  of  the  bell  which  was  wont  to  awaken  them  for 
prayers  when  any  of  them  was  removed  from  the  world,  and 
opening  her  eyes,  she  fancied  she  saw  the  roof  of  the  house  open 
and  a  river  of  light  pour  in  from  above  which  filled  it,  and  St. 
Hilda  being  carried  by  angels  to  heaven.  Awakening,  she  looked 
around,  and  noticing  that  the  other  sisters  were  all  asleep,  she 
realised  that  she  had  had  either  a  dream  or  a  vision ;  and  rising 
in  a  fright,  she  roused  a  nun  who,  according  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
version,  was  prioress  in  the  monastery  and  was  called  Frigyd,  and 
in  great  trouble  reported  to  her  that  Hilda  had  taken  her  departure 
with  an  escort  of  angels.  The  latter  then  awoke  all  the  other 
sisters  and  summoned  them  to  church  to  say  prayers  and  sing 
psalms  for  the  Mother,  and  at  daybreak  the  brethren  came  from  the 
other  monastery  where  she  had  died  to  report  the  fact.  The 
sisters  told  them  they  already  knew  what  they  had  to  tell,  and  it 
then  transpired  that  the  vision  occurred  at  the  very  time  when 
the  saint  had  actually  died.  The  two  monasteries,  says  Bede, 
were  about  thirteen  miles  apart.^ 

In  later  days  it  was  supposed  that  the  figure  of  St.  Hilda 
could  sometimes  be  seen  at  one  of  the  windows  of  the  later 
abbey  at  Whitby.  This  was  the  result,  we  are  told,  of  certam 
effects  of  mist  and  air,  still  sometimes  visible.^ 

The  Begu  or  Bega  of  this  notice  who  was  at  Hackness  when 
Hilda  died  in  680,  had  according  to  Bede,  been  a  nun  for 
thirty  years — that  is,  since  650 — and  must  therefore  have  been 
professed  about  the  same  time  as  the  Heiu  above  named.  She 
can  only  have  come  to  Hackness,  however,  in  679,  when  that 
nunnery  was  built.  Whence  she  came  from  we  do  not  positively 
know,  but  it  seems  to  me  very  probable  that  she  came  from  the 
West,  and  not  unlikely  from  Cumberland.  In  the  twelfth-century 
Life  of  her  she  is  identified  with  Heiu,  which  is  most  improbable. 
^  Bedcy  iv.  23.  ^  Murray's  Yorkshire,  p.  215. 


196  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Bega  may,  however,  like  Bugga,  have  been  a  surname  or  pet  name. 
This  is  rather  confirmed  by  a  story  of  her.  Begu  is  the  old  North- 
umbrian name  of  b^g  or  beag,  "  a  bracelet,"  and  in  her  Life  we  are 
told  that  a  holy  man  who  persuaded  her  to  adopt  a  religious  life 
presented  her  with  a  bracelet  which  she  was  to  wear  constantly 
in  memory  of  her  consecration.  This  bracelet  she  left  behind 
when  she  fled  from  Copeland,  in  Cumberland,  and  there  it  was 
venerated  for  her  sake.^  St.  Bega  gave  her  name  to  St.  Bees  Head 
and  to  the  town  of  St.  Bees  in  Copeland.  The  giving  of  her  name 
to  the  headland  was  doubtless  due  to  an  early  chapel  dedicated 
to  her.  The  chapel  built  on  the  same  spot  by  Henry  the 
First  could  hardly  have  been  the  first  foundation  there,  for  a 
Norman  king  would  not  have  built  a  new  church  to  a  saint 
with  an  Irish  name,  and  he  probably  only  restored  a  building 
which  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Danes.  It  is  possible  that,  as 
said  in  her  Life,  she  was  the  daughter  of  an  Irish  prince  born 
in  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  and  brought  up  as  a 
Christian.  She  is  reported  to  have  fled  from  Ireland  to  escape 
matrimony,  and  went  to  Cumberland,  where  she  first  led  the  life 
of  a  hermit  at  Kirkedale,  on  the  island  of  Cumbrae,  and  after- 
wards called  St.  Bees,  and  she  there  founded  a  nunnery.  Thence 
she  went  to  St.  Aidan,  who  invested  her  with  the  black  habit  and 
veil.  She  is  said  to  have  died  on  the  31st  of  October  681.  The 
author  of  her  Life  says  it  seems  difficult  to  doubt  the  statement 
that  in  the  year  11 40  a  coffin  was  found  at  Hackness  inscribed 
"Hie  est  sepulchrum  Beghu."  He  also  mentions  a  certain 
Freetha  who  was  probably  the  Frigyth  of  Bede's  account.^ 
It  is  remarkable  that  among  the  memorial  stones  found  at 
Hackness,  to  be  mentioned  presently,  is  one  on  which  there  is  a 
representation  of  a  female  head ;  the  latter  is  surmounted  by  the 
words,  Bugga  virgo.  This  is  followed  by  two  lines  of  runic 
characters,  and  these  by  four  other  lines  with  so-called  tree  runes 
or  cryptic  runes,  and  followed  again  by  the  word  Orate.  Can 
this  be  the  very  stone  mentioned  in  the  life  of  St.  Bega  as  having 
been  found  in  1140  at  the  very  spot,  as  mentioned  above? 
Bugga  may  here  be  a  form  of  Bega. 

She  was  honoured  at  Kilbagie,  in  Clackmannan,  and  at 
Kilbucho,  also  in  Scotland,^  and,  according  to  Butler,  at  Kilbees 
in  the  same  country,  while  the  Breviary  of  Aberdeen  says  she 
was  also  had  in  honour  at  Dunbar.     The  most  notable  miracle 

^  Haigh,  op.  cit.  350.  ^  See  Ilaigh,  op.  cit.  349  and  350. 

^  D.CB.^  i.  304-5  ;  Forbes,  Kalendars,  278. 


APPENDIX  I  197 

connected  with  her  was  when  a  fall  of  snow  in  the  middle  of 
summer  exactly  marked  the  boundaries  of  the  original  domain 
of  the  saint,  which  had  been  disputed. ^ 

More  than  one  pretty  story  is  connected  with  Hilda's  name. 
Inter  alia,  the  explanation  of  the  ammonites  found  in  the 
adjoining  lias  beds  which  look  so  like  coiled  snakes  with  their 
heads  cut  off  and  which  she  is  supposed  to  have  beheaded  and 
petrified,  hence  the  blazonry  of  the  abbey  shield  representing 
three  ammonites.  A  similar  story  was  told  of  St.  Keyne  in 
Somersetshire  about  the  ammonites  there.  I  am  tempted  to 
quote  one  of  Scott's  word-pictures  from  Marmion  in  which  this 
and  another  legend  of  St.  Hilda  are  enshrined.  He  speaks  of 
how  the  nuns  at  their  evening  talk  used  to  tell — 

"...  how  of  thousand  snakes  each  one 
Has  changed  into  a  coil  of  stone. 
When  Holy  Hilda  prayed 
Themselves  within  their  holy  ground 
Their  stony  folds  had  often  found. 
They  told  how  seafowls'  pinions  fail 
As  over  Whitby's  towers  they  sail, 
And  sinking  down  with  flutterings  faint 
They  do  their  homage  to  the  Saint." 

Bede  tells  us  that  Hilda  died  on  the  15th  of  the  kalends  of 
December,  i.e.  17th  November,  which  is  her  death-day  in  the 
Calendar.  The  year  of  her  death,  according  to  Bede,  was  680, 
and  she  was  probably  buried  at  Hartlepool,  as  I  have  argued. 
The  story  told  by  William  of  Malmesbury,  that  her  remains, 
together  with  those  of  St.  Aidan  and  of  Ceolfrid  the  Abbot  of 
Jarrow,  were  afterwards  removed  to  Glastonbury  by  King 
Edmund,  is,  according  to  Plummer,  only  part  of  the  great 
Glastonbury  myth.^  Rudborne  makes  the  same  king  remove 
them  to  Gloucester,^  while  Leland*  makes  Titus,  the  abbot  of 
Glesconia  (?  Glastonbury),  carry  them  off.^ 

Hilda  was  succeeded  as  abbess  of  Streonaeshalch  by  her  own 
foster-child,  the  Princess  .Elfleda,  the  daughter  of  King  Oswy, 
who  was  two  years  old  when  they  moved  together  to  Whitby. 
There,  as  Bede  tells  us,  she  learnt  the  discipline  of  the  regular 
life,  and  there,  on  the  death  of  Hilda,  she  became  its  abbess 
(niagistra).^     On    the    death    of  her  father,  Oswy,  in  670,  her 

^  See  Montalembert,  v.  252,  note.  '  Plummer's  Btde,  ii.  247  and  248. 

^  Ang.\Sac.,  i.  214.  ■*  Coll.,  iii.  p.  36. 

^  See  also  Dugdale,  Mon.,  ed.  1655,  i-  p-  7i.  ^  Op.  cit.  iii.  24. 


198  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

mother  Eanfleda  joined  her  at  Whitby,  and  they  governed  the 
monastery  together.^  Bede,  in  his  history  of  St.  Cuthbert, 
speaks  of  her  as  the  venerable  servant  of  Christ,  rifled,  who 
amid  the  joys  of  virginity  bestowed  the  care  of  motherly  tender- 
ness on  many  communities  of  handmaids  of  Christ,  and  grafted 
on  the  stock  of  royal  nobility  the  higher  nobility  of  consummate 
virtue.2  While  ^ddi  describes  her  as  always  the  comforter  and 
best  counsellor  of  the  whole  province.^ 

Bede  reports,  on  the  authority  of  a  priest  of  the  church  at 
Lindisfarne,  that  she  was  stricken  for  a  long  time  with  a  grievous 
illness,  and  was  almost  at  the  point  of  death ;  and  although  her 
physicians'  efforts  were  vain,  yet  divine  grace  spared  her  life  ;  she 
could  neither  walk  nor  stand,  and  crawled  about  on  all  fours  like 
a  quadruped.  One  day,  her  thoughts  turning  to  St.  Cuthbert, 
she  said,  "I  wish  I  had  something  belonging  to  him ;  I  should  then 
soon  be  better."  Cuthbert  having  heard  of  this,  sent  her  his 
girdle.  This  she  wrapped  round  her.  The  next  morning  she  was 
able  to  stand  upright,  and  on  the  third  day  was  restored  to  health. 
A  few  days  later  one  of  her  nuns  who  had  an  intolerable  pain  in 
the  head  was  cured  by  having  the  same  girdle  bound  round  it. 
She  afterwards  put  the  girdle  in  Hilda's  coffin,  whence  it  dis- 
appeared and  was  never  found  again.  Bede  naively  argues  that 
St.  Cuthberht  had  to  do  with  this,  as  he  feared  that  if  such  miracles 
became  widely  known  the  sick  would  flock  thither,  and  some  of 
whom  would  fail  to  be  cured  in  consequence  of  their  unworthi- 
ness,  and  this  would  create  scepticism  as  to  the  girdle's  merits.^ 

Bede  also  reports  an  interview  which  ^Ifleda  had  with  the 
same  saint,  who,  on  her  invitation,  took  ship,  and  with  some  of 
his  companions  went  to  Coquet  Island,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Coquet  in  Northumberland,  whither  she  went  to  meet  him. 
After  putting  some  questions  to  him  and  receiving  satisfactory 
answers,  she  fell  at  his  feet  and  implored  him  to  tell  her  how 
long  her  brother  King  Ecgfrid  was  going  to  live  and  rule  over 
the  Angles.  He  was  not  anxious  to  disclose  this,  and  spoke  in 
rather  cryptic  terms,  but  implied  that  he  could  only  live  a  year. 
This  news  greatly  grieved  her,  and  she  then  asked  who  would  be 
his  heir,  since  he  had  neither  children  nor  brothers.  He  con- 
soled her  by  telling  her  that  one  would  come  from  beyond  the 
seas  whom  she  might  treat  as  a  brother.  By  this  she  understood 
that  Aldfrid,  who  was  reputed  to  be  the  son  of  Ecgfrid's  father 


^  Bede,  iv.  26.  2  Qp^  ^^y_  ^j^g_  2-3, 

3  Vit.  VVilf.,  ch.  60.  4  Vit.  Cuih.,  ch.  23. 


APPENDIX  I  199 

and  had  been  studying  letters  for  a  long  time  among  the  Scots, 
was  meant.  As  we  have  seen,  Aldfrid  did  in  fact  succeed  him. 
y^lfleda  then  turned  her  conversation  to  Ecgfrid  himself.  She 
knew  that  he  had  wanted  to  make  Cuthberht  a  bishop,  and  she  was 
anxious  to  know  why  he  preferred  his  cloister  to  so  dignified  a 
position.  He  replied  that  although  he  felt  himself  unworthy  of 
such  a  position,  he  could  not  resist  the  decree  of  the  Ruler  of 
heaven  if  he  so  ordered.  He  was  sure,  however,  that  it  would  only 
be  for  a  time,  and  that  in  a  while  he  would  release  him  again, 
and  let  him  go  back  to  his  beloved  solitude ;  but  he  begged  her 
to  tell  nobody.  Having  answered  her  various  questions  and 
instructed  her  in  things  about  which  she  had  need,  he  once  more 
returned  to  his  monastery.^     This  was  about  the  year  684. 

Two  years  later,  St.  Cuthberht  again  visited  her  at  Osingadum, 
now  Easington,  seven  miles  from  Whitby,  where  she  had  built 
another  monastery.  He  had  gone  thither  to  consecrate  a  church, 
and,  as  reported  by  the  abbess  herself  to  his  biographer,  they 
dined  together,  and  at  the  meal  his  knife  fell  from  his  trembling 
hand,  while  his  thoughts  were  elsewhere.  Thereupon  he  play- 
fully said,  "  You  wish  me  to  eat  all  day  ;  I  must  rest  sometimes." 
The  fact  is,  as  the  story  goes,  the  soul  of  one  of  the  brethren  at 
the  larger  monastery  of  Whitby  w^as  then  passing  away,  and  this 
had  been  seen  in  the  spirit  by  Cuthberht.  A  messenger  who 
arrived  the  next  day  reported  the  death  of  a  shepherd  named 
Hathuwald,  who  had  been  killed  by  falling  from  a  tree,  and  for 
whom  the  abbess  asked  the  bishop  to  pray.^ 

While  ^Ifleda  was  Abbess  of  Whitby,  Trumwine  who  had 
been  driven  away  from  his  see  at  Abercorn  by  the  Picts,  sought 
shelter  at  Whitby.  There,  says  Bede,  with  a  few  of  his  own 
people,  he  for  several  years  led  a  life  of  monastic  austerity,  not 
only  to  his  own  benefit,  but  to  that  of  many,  and  there  he  was 
buried  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter.  .  .  .  When  the  bishop  came 
thither,  "this  divine  instructress  for  God "(/.<?.  ^Ifleda)  found 
in  him  the  greatest  assistance  in  governing  the  nunnery  and  the 
greatest  comfort  to  herself.^ 

Before  the  death  of  King  Aldfrid  of  Northumbria,  we  are 
told  that  y^lfleda  his  sister  pleaded  with  him  on  behalf  of  St. 
Wilfrid.  This  was  apparently  at  the  instance  of  Archbishop 
Theodore.^  According  to  ^-Eddi,  when  Aldfrid  was  presently 
mortally  ill,    she   was  present    at   his   bedside,    and  afterwards 

1  Vit.  Cut/t.,  ch.  24.  -  Jb.  ch.  34. 

2  IJ.E.^  iv.  26.  *  Ante,  ii.  p.  219. 


200  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

professed  to  report  one  of  his  dying  statements  showing  his  deter- 
mination if  he  got  better  to  make  reparation  to  the  Bishop.^  It  was 
^Ifleda's  report  of  this  remark  that  did  so  much  to  induce  the 
Northumbrian  clergy  to  treat  Wilfrid  with  more  consideration. ^ 

The  Whitby  monk  who  wrote  the  earliest  life  of  St.  Gregory 
has  a  curious  legend  about  the  discovery  of  the  remains  of  King 
v^^dwin  at  this  time.  He  says  there  was  a  brother  of  our  race 
named  Trim  ma  in  a  certain  monastery  of  the  South  Angles 
{Simdaranglorum)  in  the  days  of  their  King  ^thelred.  At  that 
time  Queen  y^'onfleda  {stc)^  the  daughter  of  King  ^dwin,  was  still 
living  a  monastic  life.  To  Trimma  there  appeared  in  a  vision  a 
certain  priest,  saying,  "  Go  to  the  place  which  is  in  the  district 
called  Hatlield,  where  ^dwin  was  killed,  and  remove  his  bones 
thence  and  take  them  to  *  Streuneshalac '  {sic),  which  is  the  monas- 
tery of  the  most  famous  ^Ifleda,  the  daughter  of  the  above-named 
Queen  yEonfleda  (j/V)."  He  thereupon  replied,  "  I  do  not  know 
the  place."  Upon  which  he  said,  "  Go  to  a  certain  village 
in  Lindissi  (whose  actual  name  our  brother  who  reported  the 
story  says  the  Whitby  monk  had  forgotten),  and  seek  out  a 
certain  man  called  Teoful.     He  can  show  you  where  it  is." 

Thinking  it  was  only  a  delusive  dream  he  took  no  notice  of 
it,  but  the  same  thing  having  occurred  three  times,  he  went  to 
the  man,  who  pointed  out  to  him  where  the  royal  remains 
were.  The  first  excavation  was  unsuccessful,  but  he  succeeded 
better  on  a  second  trial,  found  the  relics  and  took  them  to 
"  Streuneshalac,"  where,  says  the  Whitby  monk,  they  are  now, 
with  other  royal  remains,  placed  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter  to  the 
south  of  the  altar  of  St.  Peter  and  the  east  of  that  of  St.  Gregory.^ 

The  mention  of  y^lfleda  with  her  mother  in  this  story  con- 
firms the  statement  of  Bede,  that  they  at  least  for  a  while  governed 
the  Abbey  jointly.  ^^  Fraeerat  quide?n  tunc  eide??i  monasterio 
regia  virgo  Aelbfied  (sic)  una  cum  matre  Eanflede^  ^ 

During  y^lfleda's  tenure  of  the  Abbey,  John,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Hexham,  was  also  an  inmate  there,  and  was  doubtless 
trained  under  her.^  Father  Haigh  suggests  that  she  assisted  at 
the  translation  of  the  remains  of  her  old  friend  St.  Cuthberht, 
since  one  of  the  linen  envelopes  of  his  body,  which  were  removed 
from  it  in  1104,  was  described  as  "a  linen  cloth  of  a  double 
texture  which  had  enveloped  the  body  of  St.  Cuthberht :  ^Ifleda 
the  Abbess  had  wrapped  him  up  in  it." 

^  Ante,  ii.  220.  ^  /^_  j^^  ^nd  180.  ^  Qp^  ^^y^  ^^^^  jg_  4  ^^^^^  j^^  26. 
^  See  Vit.  St.  Johannis,  Raine  {Historians  of  York^  i.  244). 


APPENDIX  I  201 

The  last  act  reported  of  St.  yKlfleda  was  the  writing  of  a 
letter  preserved  among  those  of  St.  Boniface  and  addressed  to 
an  Abbess  called  Adolana,  identified  by  Mabillon  with  Adda  or 
Addula,  daughter  of  Dagobert  ii.,  king  of  Austrasia,  and  founder 
of  a  monastery  at  Pfalzel  (Palatiolum,  near  Treves),  over  which 
she  presided  for  thirty-five  years.  ^21fleda  commends  to  her 
charity  an  Abbess  who  had  been  a  spiritual  daughter  of  her 
own  from  the  days  of  her  youth.  She  had  long  wished  to  make 
a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  but  had  hitherto  refrained  for  the  sake 
of  the  community  over  which  she  presided,  but  at  her  persevering 
request  she  had  at  length  yielded.^  Let  us  hope  they  were  not 
anxious  to  get  rid  of  a  tiresome  old  lady. 

St.  y^lfleda  died  in  713  at  the  age  of  fifty-nine,-  and  was 
buried  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter  in  the  monastery  at  Streonaeshalch 
with  her  father  Oswy,  her  mother  Eanfleda,  her  mother's  father 
^dwin,  and  many  other  noble  persons.^  As  I  have  already 
said,  St.  Hilda,  the  founder  of  the  abbey,  is  conspicuously 
absent  from  this  list.^  iElfleda's  death-day  in  the  calendar  is 
the  8th  February.^ 

Let  us  now  revert  shortly  to  Hackness.  According  to  v4^ddi, 
when  King  Aldfrid  was  mortally  ill  at  Driffield  in  705,  ^Ifieda, 
with  another  abbess  named  ^thelburga,  visited  him.  Father 
Haigh  has  argued  most  plausibly  that  this  yEthelburga  was  then 
probably  the  Abbess  of  Hackness,  which  abbey,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  subordinate  to  Whitby.  On  the  northern  side  of  the  chancel 
arch  in  the  church  there  still  remains  a  stone  decorated  with  inter- 
laced serpents  forming  the  capital  of  a  pier,  with  fragments  of  a 
cross  which  is  preserved  in  the  chancel  of  St.  Peter's  chapel.  The 
capital  on  the  northern  pier  of  the  chancel  arch  of  this  church 
is  ornamented  with  a  pattern  of  intertwined  serpents  of  this  date.^ 
The  uppermost  fragment  has  a  scroll  on  the  southern  side  and 
a  knot  on  the  northern,  of  the  same  character  as  those  on  the 
cross  at  Bewcastle,  and  others  in  Northumbria.  On  the  other  side 
there  are  inscriptions  in  Latin,  but  so  disfigured  by  blunders  as 
to  make  it  evident  the  writer  did  not  understand  the  language. 

^  Mon.  Ger?n.  Hist.,  Ep.  iii.  248  and  249  ;  Haigh,  op.  cit.  363. 

^  Annales  Lauresh.,  where  she  is  called  Alfreda.  ^  Bede,  iii.  24. 

*  The  great  abbey  of  the  founder  was  destroyed  by  the  Danes. 

'  Her  death  is  recorded  in  the  Irish  Annals,  where  we  read  :  "  Filia  Osui 
in  Monasteriam  lid  moritiir.''''  The  Ulster  Annals  put  it  in  712,  and  Tigher- 
nach  in  713  (see  Plummer,  ii.  185). 

^  Browne,  Theodore  and  Wilfrid^  137  and  280,  figures  one  of  the  fragments 
just  named. 


202  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Of  these  inscriptions,  Haigh  says :  In  the  first  line  we  have 
certainly  the  name  Oedilburga  {i.e.  ^thelburga),  and  to  the  end 
of  the  fourth  line  the  restoration  is  indubitable.  Then  reading  T 
for  S  and  O  for  D  in  the  ninth  line,  and  supplying  an  E  in  the 
fifth,  we  have  Oedilburga  beata  ad  semper  te  recolant  aniaiites  pie 
deposcant  requiem  ver?ia?item  sempiterna7?i  sanctorum  pia  mater 
Aposiolica.     I  quote  Bishop  Browne's  revised  reading. 

On  another  fragment,  which  is  defaced  on  one  side  and  has 
the  lower  extremities  of  two  monsters  on  another,  there  is 
another  inscription  in  four  lines  in  characters  apparently 
analogous  to  Celtic  Oghams ;  while  on  the  fourth  we  have  the 
inscription,  Trecea^  ora  .  .  .  abbatissa  Oedilburga  orate  p{ro 
nobis)} 

The  name  of  ^Ethilburga,  as  Father  Haigh  says,  immediately 
follows  that  of  ^Ifleda  in  the  Liber  Vitae,  and  John  of  Walling- 
ford,  who  sometimes  has  notices  which  are  apparently  derived 
from  some  lost  early  source,  calls  her  a  daughter  of  Adulf,  King 
of  the  East  Anglians,  brother  of  ^thelwold,  the  son  of  Hereswitha 
and  nephew  of  Hilda  {Aethelwold  /rater  Adulfi  patris  Ethel- 
burgae  virginis).  Elsewhere  he  speaks  of  her  as  a  contemporary  of 
S.  Guthlac  and  as  a  daughter  of  King  Eadulf,  i.e.  Adulf  {Eadulfi 
regis  filia)^  "  who  first  led  the  life  of  a  female  anchorite."  She  after- 
wards, when  driven  by  pressing  circumstances  {exigentibus  causis 
necessariis),  was  constrained  to  become  an  abbess,  and  eventually 
died  as  the  Superior  of  many  nuns  {sanctimoniales),  after  a  life  of 
perpetual  virginity. ^  The  fact  that  she  was  a  great-niece  of  St. 
Hilda  probably  accounts  for  yEthilburga  moving  from  East 
Anglia  and  settling  in  Yorkshire.  The  earlier  inscription  of 
-(^thilburga,  or  Oedilburga,  above  quoted  is  followed  by  the  word 
"  lica,"  separated  from  it,  however,  by  a  line,  and  is  therefore  (says 
Haigh)  the  beginning  of  another  memorial.  He  suggests  that 
it  is  the  termination  of  a  very  rare  name,  Cuoemlicu,  which 
occurs  in  the  list  of  queens  and  abbesses  in  the  Liber  Vitae.^ 

On  the  opposite  side  of  one  of  the  fragments  at  Hackness  we 
have  another  inscription  which,  says  Haigh,  after  making  the 
obvious  corrections  of  N  for  M  in  the  fourth  line,  A  for  Q  in  the 
seventh,  suppressing  a  redundant  M  in  the  sixth,  and  supplying  R 
in  the  seventh,  reads — Huaetburga,  semper  tenent  memores  domus 
tuae  te  mater  amatissima.     "The  memories  of  thy  house  always 

^  Browne,  op.  cit.  281  ;  Haigh  reads  Trece[ab]osa. 
2   Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.,  iii.  373-74. 
^  lb. 


Si;al  (>i    Ak(HI)KA«  on   1>omia<  k. 


DEDILBV 
BEATAA^ 
EMPERT 

hDRF^"  \> 

I  lElLP      AN 

iUF  pV    EM 

VERNA     IF 


ir  N 


Memorial  of  OEniLHUK»;A. — See  page  202. 


A  Memorial  to  Tre(  ca.     {ib.) 


.T-v^^^l 


Memorial  of  [IIl-a]i-:tb(uk)(;a. 


©IDp 


Base 


OK  Owin's  Cross.— 5.V /tr^'f  218. 


[F^/.  in.,  facing  p   202. 


APPENDIX  I  203 

hold  thee  dearest  Mother."  ^    We  can  hardly  doubt  that  she  also 
was  an  Abbess  of  Hackness,  or  she  would  hardly  have  been  thus 
commemorated  there.     I  think  it  very  probable  that  she  is  the 
same  abbess  on  whose  behalf  St.  ^Ifleda  wrote  the  letter  above 
quoted  to  St.  Boniface.     It  would  seem,  in  fact,  that  she  was  also 
a  daughter  of  Aldwulf,  or  Eadulf,  King  of  the  East  Angles,  and  a 
sister  of  ^thilburga  just  named.     Like  Eadburga,  the  Abbess  of 
Repton,  of  whom  we  have  written  earlier,-  she  occurs  with  her 
name  spelt  in  a  different  way.     In  a  letter  written  to  Archbishop 
Boniface  by  her  with  her  name  spelt  Egburga,  she  describes  herself 
as  lowlier  than  any  of  his  male  and  female  disciples,  and  addresses 
him  by  his  original  name,  Wynfrith.     In  it  he  is  called  an  abbot. 
(It  must  therefore  have  been  written  before  he  became  bishop, 
and  when  he  was  still  Abbot  of  Nutshell,  i.e.  in  717-718.)     She 
says,  "The  tempest-tossed  mariner  does  not  so  much  long  for 
the  haven,  the  thirsty  fields  do  not  so  much  desire  the  showers, 
the  mother  does  not  so  anxiously  wait  for  her  son  on  the  winding 
shore,  as  I  desire  to  enjoy  the  sight  of  thee,"  and  adds  that  he 
had  taken  the  place  in  her  affections  of  her  brother,  Oshere, 
whose  death,  which  happened  many  years  before,  she  still  con- 
tinued to  feel.     She  then  goes  on  to  speak  of  another  and  more 
recent  loss,  namely,  that  of  her  dear  sister,  Withburga,  with  whom 
she  had  been  brought  up,  having  been  nursed  at  the  same  breast 
and  having  had  one  mother  in  the  Lord.     She  had  been  removed 
from  her,  not  because  of  her  death,  but  of  their  bitter  separation. 
"Now,"  she  says,  "a  prison  confines  her  in  the  Roman  city," 
meaning  apparently  that  she  was  inaccesible  there.     The  letter 
closes  with  a  message  from  her  amanuensis  called  Ealdberht,  who 
reminds  Boniface  of  their  ancient  friendship,  and  asks  for  his 
prayers.^     As  Father  Haigh  remarks,  the  fact  of  her  name  not 
occurring  in  the  Liher  Vitae  points  to  her  having  died  abroad  and 
probably  at  Rome.     In  another  letter  written  by  Boniface  to  an 
"Abbess  Bugga,"  who  had  apparently  complained  of  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  secular  clergy  with  her,  he  adds,  "  If  you  cannot  on  their 
account  have  the  freedom  of  a  quiet  mind,  in  your  own  country, 
it  seems  better  that  you  should  gain  liberty  of  contemplation  by 
a  pilgrimage  if  you  wish  and  can  arrange  it  as  our  sister  With- 
burga^ who  has  intimated  to  me  by  her  letters  that  she  found  just 
such  a  quiet  life  as  she  had  long  desired  and   sought,  at  the 
threshold  of  Peter.""*     The  mention  of  Withburga  in  this  letter 

^  Of  the  initial  name,  Huaetburga,  the  letters  .  .  .  etb  .  .  .  ga  still  remain. 
2  Ante^  ii.  414.         ^  AUn.  Germ.  Hist.,  Ep.  iii.  p.  259.        ^  lb.  p.  277. 


204  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

suggests  that  Bugga  may  be  here  used  as  a  playful  name  for 
Egburga,  just  as  it  is  similarly  used  as  a  pet  name  for  Heaburg 
{Heaburg  cog7iomejito  Buggae)  in  another  of  the  letters  of  Boniface 
(cf.  p.  261). 

Bede  also  mentions  a  monastery  of  virgins  at  a  place  called 
Wetadun,  probably  Watton  in  Yorkshire,  half-way  between 
Driffield  and  Beverley,  over  which  the  Abbess  Heriburga  pre- 
sided.^ On  one  occasion  it  was  visited  by  John,  the  Bishop  of 
York,  when  he  was  warmly  welcomed  by  the  abbess  and  nuns. 
One  of  the  latter,  who,  says  Bede,  was  the  daughter  of  the  abbess 
(according  to  the  flesh),  and  whose^name  was  Quenburga,  had  been 
lately  bled,  and  while  engaged  in  study  was  seized  with  a  sudden 
pain,  and  her  arm  swelled  so  much  that  it  could  hardly  be  grasped 
with  both  hands,  and  she  seemed  about  to  die.  The  abbess 
entreated  the  Bishop  to  bless  her.  He  asked  when  she  had 
been  bled,  and  being  told  it  was  on  the  4th  day  of  the  moon, 
replied  that  they  had  done  ill  to  bleed  her  on  that  day,  for  he 
remembered  the  Archbishop  saying  that  it  was  very  dangerous  to 
bleed  people  at  that  season,  for  the  moon  and  tide  were  then  in- 
creasing. He  then  asked  what  he  could  do  for  her.  She  per- 
suaded him  to  go  in  to  her  daughter,  who  she  intended  should 
be  her  successor,  and  say  a  prayer  over  her.  The  story  was 
reported  by  a  certain  Bercthun,  the  Bishop's  deacon,  and  in 
Bede's  time  Abbot  of  the  Monastery  of  Derawude  (in  Latin, 
Silva  Derorum,  i.e.  the  wood  of  the  Deiri),^  who  said  he  had 
been  told  by  the  virgin  herself  that  in  consequence  of  the  prayer 
her  arm  had  been  completely  cured. 

We  will  now  turn  to  another  family  of  secluded  ladies.  This 
claimed  St.  /f^^bbe  for  its  initial  Mother.  St.  ^bbe  is  called 
the  uterine  sister  of  the  Northumbrian  King  Oswy  by  Bede  in 
his  History  of  St.  Cuthberht  {soror  uterina  regis  Oswy).^  Mr. 
Plummer  understands  the  phrase  as  meaning  that  they  had  the 
same  mother  {J.e.  Acha,  sister  of  iEdwin),  but  not  the  same 
father,  and  that  therefore  she  was  not  the  daughter  of  King 
^thelfrid.  I  think  it  more  probable  that  he  meant  by  it  that 
she  was  the  sister  of  Oswy  on  her  mother's,  as  well  as  her  father's 
side,  and  not  like  some  other  sons  of  ^Ethelfrid,  who  were  only 
her  half-brothers. 

^  yElred  of  Rivaulx  says  it  was  situated  among  marshes. 
^  See  Bede^  v.  2  ;  A.-S.   Ckron.,  sub  an.  685.     It  was  afterwards  called 
Beverley,  and  Bercthun  was  its  first  abbot.     Act.  Sanct.^  May,  iii.  503. 
^  Op.  cit.  ch.  10. 


APPENDIX  I  205 

It  is  pretty  certain,  on  the  accession  of  King  i^idwin,  that 
she  escaped  to  Scotland  with  the  other  members  of  /Ethelfrid's 
family.  According  to  the  Aberdeen  Breviary,  she  was  there 
protected  by  Domnall  Breac,  who  reigned,.over  Dalriada  from 
629-642.  Capgrave,  who  was  such  an  inventor  of  impossible 
legends,  says  she  was  sought  in  marriage  by  Aidan,  King  of  the 
Scots.  As  he  died  in  606,  that  is,  ten  years  before  her  father's 
death,  and  when  her  mother  had  only  been  married  three  years, 
this  does  not  seem  probable.  He  further  says  she  was  baptized 
by  St.  Finan,  which  is  another  of  his  unauthorised  statements. 
It  is  almost  certain  that  she  in  fact  became  a  Christian  in 
Scotland  at  the  same  time  as  her  brothers  Oswald  and  Oswy. 

Presently  she  adopted  a  religious  life.  We  are  told  that  her 
brother  Oswy  gave  her  a  small  Roman  camp  near  the  Derwent  on 
the  west  of  the  county  of  Durham,  where  she  founded  a  monastery. 
The  place  was  afterwards  called  Ebchester,  after  her,  and  the 
church  there  is  still  dedicated  to  her.^  This  story  may,  in  fact, 
have  arisen,  as  others  have,  from  the  dedication  being  to  her. 
What  is  much  more  certain  is  that  she  founded  another  and  a 
more  famous  monastery  at  Coldingham  on  the  coast  of  Berwick- 
shire, of  which  she  became  the  Abbess.  Her  name  remains 
attached  to  the  rocky  promontory  close  by  known  as  St.  Abb's 
Head.  Coldingham  is  called  Coludi  urbs  by  Bede,-  and  Smith, 
the  editor  of  Bede,  identifies  it  with  the  Colana  of  Ptolemey  and 
rejects  the  notion  of  some  of  the  older  antiquaries,  who  derived 
its  name  from  the  Culdees,  as  etymologically  most  improb- 
able. iEbbe  was  there  visited  on  her  own  invitation  by  St. 
Cuthberht,  who  spent  a  few  days  with  her,  no  doubt  instructing 
the  community.  Bede  tells  a  story  that  w^hile  the  rest  of  the 
community  were  asleep,  he  used  to  go  out  alone  and  spend  the 
greater  part  of  the  night  in  prayer  and  prolonged  vigils,  nor 
would  he  return  till  the  hour  of  common  prayer  was  at  hand. 
One  night  he  was  followed  stealthily  by  one  of  the  brothers,  who 
reported  how  Cuthberht  had  gone  down  to  the  sea,  above  which 
on  a  height  there  rose  the  monastery.  He  entered  the  water 
till  it  reached  his  arms  and  neck,  and  thus  spent  some  time  in 
singing  psalms,  which  we  are  told  were  accompanied  by  the 
sound  of  the  waves.  At  dawn  he  came  ashore  and  concluded 
his  prayers,  kneeling  on  the  beach.  As  he  was  doing  this  on 
one  occasion,  there  came  two  otters  (iutrae),  really  seals,  from 

^  See  Tanner,  Noi.  Mon.  Dunelin.^  vi.  ;  and  Surtees,  Durham^  ii.  301. 
Hardy's  Catalogue,  289-290.  ^Op.  cit.  iv.  19. 


2o6  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

the  sea  and  began  to  warm  his  feet  with  their  breath  and  to 
wipe  them  dry  with  their  hair,  after  which  the  Saint  gave  them 
his  blessing  and  returned  to  the  monastery  to  keep  the  canonical 
hours.  Cuthberht  having  noticed  that  he  had  been  observed,  told 
the  monk  who  had  followed  him  that  he  forgave  him  on  condition 
of  his  telling  no  one  about  it  until  after  his  death,  a  promise 
which  he  duly  kept.^ 

At  Coldingham  she  was  also  visited  by  iEtheldrytha,  daughter 
of  King  Anna  of  East  Anglia,  the  tiresome  wife  of  the  North- 
umbrian King  Ecgfrid,  son  of  Oswy,  who  was  of  course  iEbbe's 
nephew.  She  became  a  professed  nun  there,  having,  as  we 
have  seen,  taken  the  veil  from  Bishop  Wilfrid.^  She  only  stayed 
a  year,  and  then  returned  to  her  old  home  in  East  Anglia. 
Presently  Queen  Eormenburga  (probably  the  lurminburg  of  the 
Liber  Vitae\  the  second  wife  of  Ecgfrid,  also  paid  a  visit  to 
Coldingham,  where  she  fell  ill.  ^bbe  the  Abbess  attributed  it, 
according  to  ^Eddi,  to  Ecgfrid's  treatment  of  Wilfrid,  and  further 
tells  us  that  she  thereupon  wrote  a  sharp  letter  to  the  king,  who 
released  Wilfrid  from  custody ;  after  which  his  wife  recovered.^ 

About  the  year  679  the  monastery  at  Coldingham,  which  was 
doubtless  entirely  constructed  of  wood,  was  completely  burnt, 
through  carelessness  {per  culpam  iftcuriae),  says  Bede.  He  then 
adds  a  very  cryptic  sentence,  in  which  he  seems  to  attribute  the 
disaster  to  the  evil  lives  of  the  inmates,  and  that  it  might  have 
been  averted  if  they  had  amended  their  ways  and  been  penitent. 
The  monastery  was  a  double  one,  that  is  to  say,  both  for  men  and 
women.  Among  the  monks  was  a  certain  Scot,  called,  like  the 
famous  abbot  of  lona,  Adamnan,  who  lived  a  most  austere  life, 
only  taking  food  on  Sundays  and  Thursdays  and  often  spending 
whole  nights  in  prayer.  He  had  adopted  this  painful  life  in 
order  to  cure  himself  of  certain  evil  propensities  which  had  led 
him  into  wickedness  when  young.  This  he  did  at  the  instance 
of  an  Irish  priest  whom  he  had  consulted. 

It  happened  that  on  a  certain  day,  having  been  for  a  long  walk 
from  the  monastery  with  a  companion,  they  were  returning,  and 
as  they  drew  near  home  again,  Adamnan  broke  into  tears  when 
they  approached  the  lofty  buildings  of  the  monastery.  On  being 
asked  why  he  did  this,  he  said  that  in  a  short  time  the  Abbey 
buildings  would  be  burnt  down.  His  companion  told  ^bbe, 
who  questioned  him.     He  replied  how  he  had  been  visited  by 

^  Vit.  Anon.  Czith.,  par.  13  ;  Bede,  Vit.,  ch.  10. 

^'Bede,  H.E.,  iv.  19.  3  y^^  lYilf.,  ch.  39. 


appp:ndix  I  207 

a  vision  which  had  congratulated  him  on  having  found  him  en- 
gaged in  his  devotions,  for,  he  said,  I  have  visited  all  the  different 
parts  of  the  monastery  and  looked  into  everyone's  chambers  and 
beds  and  have  found  no  one  but  yourself  busy  about  the  care 
of  his  soul,  but  all  of  them,  both  men  and  women,  were  either 
engaged  in  slothful  sleep  or  awake  in  order  to  commit  sin  {aut  ad 
peccata  vigila?it).  For  even  the  cells  {(iotminaclae)  that  were  built 
for  praying  or  reading  had  been  converted  into  places  of  feasting, 
drinking,  talking,  and  other  luxuries ;  and  the  virgins  dedicated 
to  God,  laying  aside  the  respect  due  to  their  profession,  when 
they  had  leisure,  devoted  themselves  to  weaving  fine  garments 
{texendis  subtilioribus  indume?itis)  either  to  adorn  themselves  like 
brides  {ad  vicem  sponsaruni)  or  to  gain  the  attention  of  strange 
men  {aid  exierjwrum  sibi  vironim  a?nicitiam  co?npare?it).  He  said 
all  this  would  lead  to  the  place  being  destroyed  by  fire  from 
heaven.  The  Abbess  rebuked  him  for  not  having  let  her  know 
what  was  going  on.  His  story  having  been  spread  abroad,  the 
inmates  of  the  monastery  amended  their  ways  for  a  while,  but 
after  the  Abbess's  death  they  returned  to  their  former  filthy  con- 
versations and  became  even  more  wicked  {redieruiit  ad pristinas 
sordes,  immo  sceleratiora  feceriifif).  Bede  says  he  was  told  all  this 
by  his  fellow-priest,  yEdgils,  who  then  lived  in  the  monastery,  and 
who  after  the  fire  removed  to  Bede's  monastery  and  died  there.^ 

^■Ebbe  is  said  to  have  died  on  21st  August  683,  and  was  com- 
memorated on  August  25th. 2  In  the  eleventh  century  her  relics 
were  translated  from  Coldingham  to  Durham.  They  were  among 
those  which  the  famous  sacrist,  Alured,  son  of  Weslowe,  carried 
off  from  their  several  resting-places  to  enrich  the  great  depository 
of  relics  at  Durham.  Symeon  of  Durham  says  that  that  worthy 
had  a  divine  commission  to  hunt  them  out.  Among  them  were  the 
remains  of  ^bbe  and  ^thelgytha,^  both  Abbesses  of  Coldingham.'* 
These  remains  are  not  mentioned  in  the  register  of  Richard  de 
Segbrok,  and  may  have  been  returned  at  a  later  time.  He  does, 
however,  mention  "  a  piece  of  cloth  which  St.  yEbbe  gave  to 
St.  Cuthberht,  in  which  he  lay  for  418  years  and  5  months."^ 

The  loose  morals  prevailing  at  Coldingham  during  Abbe's 
Abbacy,  as  testified  by  Bede,  may  be  matched  by  what  is  stated 
in  a  document  quoted  by  Ivo  (an  indifferent  guide,  no  doubt).  The 
document  itself  is  obviously  dubious,  but  it  shows  what  the  famous 

^  Bede,  iv.  25.  '  Her  name  occurs  in  the  Liher  Vitae  of  Durham. 

'  The  latter's  name  occurs  in  the  Ltbe?-  J'itac  in  the  form  Effelgytha. 
*  Raine,  The  Priory  of  Hexham ^  i.  53.         ^  Raine's  St.  Cuthberht^  123. 


2o8  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Roman  Catholic  canonist  deemed  was  possible  in  those  days  of 
very  lax  administration  in  monasteries.  It  claims  to  be  an  abstract 
of  a  letter  from  Pope  John  iv.  (24th  December  640  to  nth 
October  642)  to  Bulcred,  king  of  the  Saxons,  who  is  otherwise 
unknown.  In  this  the  Pope  is  made  to  say  that  he  had  heard  how 
fornication  was  rife  among  his  people,  so  that  nuns  (sandtmoniaks) 
and  women  devoted  to  God,  and  others  who  were  within  the 
prohibited  decrees  as  defined  by  St.  Gregory,  were  wont  to 
marry,  which  acts  the  Pope  proceeds  to  vigorously  condemn.^ 

In  an  earlier  page  we  have  described  a  monastery  situated  on 
the  Scotch  Tine  in  Lothian  and  known  as  Tinemouth.^  Bede 
tells  us  that  originally  it  was  a  community  of  men,  but  in  after 
times  became  one  of  virgins,  who  greatly  flourished  in  his  time.^ 
In  a  later  page  he  tells  us  of  a  miracle  performed  there  by 
St.  Cuthberht,  who  paid  a  visit  to  the  nunnery  when  the  Abbess 
was  a  certain  Verca.  Having  risen  from  his  noonday  rest  he 
felt  thirsty  and  asked  for  something  to  drink.  The  nuns  asked 
him  whether  he  would  have  wine  or  beer.  He  said  he  would 
have  water,  which  they  accordingly  drew  from  the  fountain. 
Having  given  the  benediction,  he  drank  a  little  and  handed  it 
to  his  priest,  who  gave  it  to  the  attendant.  The  latter  asked  to 
be  allowed  to  drink  from  the  cup  from  which  the  bishop  had 
drunk.  He  happened  to  be  the  priest  of  the  community.  The 
water  seemed  to  him  to  have  acquired  the  taste  of  wine. 
Wishing  that  a  brother  who  was  standing  by  should  also  be  a 
witness  of  the  miracle,  he  handed  him  the  cup.  He  confirmed 
the  fact,  and  they  both  agreed  they  had  never  tasted  better  wine. 
This  story  Bede  claims  to  have  heard  from  a  monk  of  his  own 
monastery  at  Wearmouth,  who  had  been  present. 

When  the  city  of  Carlisle,  then  called  Lugubalia,  with  its 
environs,  was  made  over  to  St.  Cuthberht,  the  latter  founded  a 
community  of  nuns  under  an  Abbess  there,  and  established 
a  school  {sandimonialiuni  congregatione  stabilita^  reginam  dato 
habitu  religionis  consecravit,  et  in profecium  divi?iae  servitutis  scholas 
instituit).^     The  Abbess,  according  to   Bede,  was  the  sister  of 

Mvo,  Decreta,  vii.  ch.  130  ;  Mansi,  Con.,  x.  687  ;  Jaffe,  No.  1585; 
Migne,  Pat.  Lat.,  vol.  161,  col.  574. 

2  Ante,  i.  83.  ^  Vit.  St.  Ctith.,  ch.  iii. 

*  Symeon  of  Durham,  i.  9.  He  here  clearly  tells  us  that  St.  Cuthberht 
consecrated  the  Queen  {i.e.  Eormenburga)  as  a  nun  there.  This  was  doubt- 
less after  the  death  of  Ecgfrid  {reginam  dato  habitu  religiojiis  consecravit) ; 
op.  cit.  i.  9.  I'ede  (  Vit.  Cuth.,  27),  speaking  of  Ecgfrid,  calls  the  monastery 
at  Carlisle,  ^'-  Monasterium  suae  saroris." 


APPENDIX  I 


209 


Ecgfrid,  King  of  Northumbria.  It  was  while  Queen  Eormenburga 
was  staying  there  with  her  sister-in-law  that  Cuthberht  foresaw 
the  death  of  her  husband,  King  Ecgfrid,  among  the  Picts.^ 

In  Bede's  time  there  was  also  a  monastery  at  Dacore  or 
Dacre,  near  the  river  of  the  same  name  which  falls  into  the  Eamont, 
and,  flowing  out  of  Lake  Ullswater,  separates  Cumberland  from 
Westmoreland.     Its  first  Abbot  was  named  Suidberht.^ 

We  will  now  turn  to  Mercia.  Montalembert  says  :  "  Of  all 
the  races  descended  from  Odin  who  shared  among  them  the 
sway  of  Englarid,  no  one  has  presented  a  larger  list  of  nuns  and 
saints  to  be  inscribed  on  the  national  calendar  than  the  descend- 
ants of  Penda,  the  ravager  and  man  of  fire,  as  if  they  thus  meant 
to  pay  a  generous  ransom  for  the  calamities  inflicted  upon  the 
new  Christians  of  England  by  their  cruel  enemy."  ^  It  is  a  very 
remarkable  fact  that  all  the  children  of  the  great  champion 
of  paganism,  Penda,  became  Christians,  and  that  his  two 
daughters  both  became  nuns,  namely,  Cyniburga,  who  married 
Alchfrid,  King  of  Northumbria,  and  Cynesuitha.*  The  names  of 
the  two  sisters,  as  we  shall  see,  occur  on  the  Bewcastle  Cross. 
After  the  death  of  Alchfrid,  they  retired  to  Mercia.  There,  ac- 
cording to  the  appendix  to  Florence  of  Worcester,  their  brothers 
Wulfhere  and  ^thelred  built  a  monastery  for  them  at  Caistor  on 
the  Nene  in  Northamptonshire  and  not  far  from  Peterborough, 
which,  according  to  Florence  of  Worcester,  was  afterwards 
called  KineburgcB  Castricm.^  It  was  originally  named  Dormund- 
caster.*^  "  Caistor  is  famous,"  says  Bishop  Browne,  "  for  its 
noble  church  and  its  ancient  remains.  A  ridge  in  Caistor  Field 
is  still  called  Cunnyburrow's  Way.  The  dedication  of  the  church 
is  to  St.  Cyniburga,  and  it  is  said  to  be  unique."''  Cynesuitha 
became  a  nun  at  the  monastery  of  Caistor,  of  which  her  sister  was 
the  Abbess.  They  were  commemorated  together  as  saints  there 
and  on  the  6th  March  about  the  year  1006  their  remains  were 
translated  to  Peterborough  by  Abbot  ^Ifsige.     Bishop  Browne 

1  See  Bede,  H.E.,  iv.  28. 

^  H.E.,  iv.  chap,  xxxii.  '  Op.  cit.  v.  267. 

*  Cynesuitha  is  said  in  the  appendices  to  Florence  of  Worcester  to  have 
persuaded  Offa,  the  son  of  Sighere,  king  of  the  East  Saxons,  who  was  in  love 
with  her,  to  give  her  up  and  to  go  to  Rome  (M.H.B.,  637),  or  as  William  of 
Malmesbury  puts  it :  Edoctus  amores  nmtare  in  melius  {G.P.,  iv.  par.  180  • 
G.R.,  i.  par.  98).  Stubbs  has  pointed  out  this  story  involves  an  anachronism 
{Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.,  iv.  68).     It  is  obviously  due  to  some  mystification. 

5  M.H.B.,  638.  «  Hardy,  Cat.  Brit.  Hist.,  i.  370. 

'  Her  name  occurs  in  the  Liber  Vitae  of  Durham. 
VOL.  III.  — 14 


2  10  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

suggests  that  the  famous  early  stone  shrine  shaped  like  a 
reliquary  and  having  a  row  of  figures  all  round,  which  is  preserved 
at  Peterborough,  may,  as  has  been  supposed,  have  contained  their 
relics.i  If  so,  it  must  itself  be  of  later  date.  The  two  sisters 
are  mentioned  in  the  forged  foundation  charter  of  Peterborough 
Abbey,  which  dates  from  the  twelfth  century  and  is  of  no  value.^ 

According  to  John  of  Tynemouth,  the  two  sisters  just 
named  had  a  relative  called  Tibba  or  Tilba,  who  also  became 
a  nun.  Camden  says  she  was  honoured  with  particular  devotion 
at  Ryal,  a  town  near  the  Guash,  in  Rutlandshire.^ 

West  of  Mercia  was  the  sub-kingdom  of  the  Hecanas, 
which  answers  to  the  modern  county  of  Hereford.  Its  first 
ruler  was  Merwald,  son  of  Penda,  who  married  Eormen- 
burga,  styled  also  Domneva  (?  Domna  Ebba),  the  niece  of 
Ecgberht,  king  of  Kent.^  She  had  several  daughters  who 
became  saints.  The  eldest  of  these  was  Milburga,  who  built 
a  nunnery  at  Wenlock,  then  called  Winwick,  and  undertook  the 
office  of  Abbess,  to  which  she  was  consecrated  by  Archbishop 
Theodore.^  It  was  reported  of  her  that  having  refused  to  marry, 
she  was  delivered  from  the  violent  attack  of  a  rejected  suitor  at 
a  place  called  Stoches,  by  a  miraculous  rising  of  the  river  Corf. 
Among  the  miracles  attributed  to  her  was  the  not  infrequent  one 
of  hanging  her  veil  on  a  sunbeam.  She  died  at  the  age  of  sixty 
in  722,  her  death-day  being  the  15th  of  June.  Harpsfeld,  who 
consulted  her  unpublished  life,  however,  gives  it  as  the  23rd  of 
February,  on  which  day  she  occurs  in  the  Hereford  Missal.  She 
was  buried  at  Wenlock,  and  many  miracles  are  reported  of  her 
in  a  work  written  by  Odo.  (He  has  been  identified,  says  Stubbs, 
with  the  Cardinal  of  Ostia,  1088-1101  ;  but  Fabricius  recognises 
him  more  probably  as  Odo,  Prior  of  Canterbury,  who  became 
Abbot  of  Battle  in  1175.)  William  of  Malmesbury  tells  us  that 
the  site  of  her  devastated  monastery  was  made  over  to  the  Cluniac 
Monks  by  Roger  de  Montgomery.  Her  tomb  was  discovered 
during  the  rebuilding  of  the  monastery  by  a  boy  running  over 
the  site  and  its  roof  breaking  in.  The  identity  with  the  saint's 
grave  was  deduced  from  the  aromatic  scent  that  proceeded  from 
it  and  by  the  wonderful  cures  performed  by  her  remains.^  These 
relics  were  translated  in  the  year  11 01.     In  the  history  of  her 

*  The  Conversion  of  the  Heptarchy ,  209-21 1. 

^  A.-S.Chron.,  MS.  E,  ad  a7i.  657. 

3  Hardy,  Cat.,  i.  370.  4  Ante,  p.  249. 

**  Stubbs,  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.,  ii.  913.  «  G.F.,  iv.  3  and  67. 


APPENDIX   1  211 

miracles,  already  cited,  it  is  said  that  a  certain  Raimund,  working 
in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  found  a  document  in  which 
the  place  of  her  burial  had  been  described  by  a  priest  named 
Alstan,  and  that  her  coffin  was  bound  with  iron  "  after  the  manner 
of  the  English."  1  The  churches  of  Stoke  St.  Milburgh  at 
Beckbury  in  Shropshire,  of  Wixford  in  Warwickshire,  and 
Offenham  in  Worcestershire,  were  dedicated  to  her.^  Dugdale 
also  speaks  of  her  cult  at  a  place  in  Wales  named  "  Landmy- 
lien,"  which  name  he  derives  from  hers.^ 

In  one  of  the  letters  of  Archbishop  Boniface,  written  to 
Eadburga,  the  Abbess  of  Thanet,  about  the  year  717,  he  reports 
the  visions  of  a  monk  who  had  recently  died  in  the  monastery 
of  St.  Milburga  at  Wenlock,  and  which  had  been  described  to 
him  by  Hildelitha,  Abbess  of  Barking.  He  calls  them  stupend- 
ous visions.  In  them  he  professed  to  have  been  very  grievously 
ill,  till  his  spirit  was  released  from  the  ties  of  the  flesh,  and  he 
saw  as  in  one  picture  all  the  lands,  and  seas,  and  peoples  of  the 
earth,  and  a  multitude  of  resplendent  angels  who  sang  in  concert 
— "  Domtne,  ?ie  m  ira  tua  arguas  vie  neque  in  furore  tuo 
corripias  w«?."  They  bore  him  upwards  through  the  air,  and  he 
noticed  that  surrounding  the  earth  there  were  great  circles  of 
flaming  fire  which  withdrew  from  them  when  the  angels  made 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  while  he  himself  was  protected  from  the 
fire  by  the  angels  putting  their  hands  on  his  head.  Beside  the 
angels  he  also  saw  a  vast  crowd  of  disembodied  human  souls, 
and  of  malignant  spirits  who  fought  with  the  angels  for  their 
possession,  and  he  himself  heard  the  recital  of  all  the  faults 
of  commission  and  omission  he  had  committed  in  his  worldly 
life,  each  one  being  personified  and  accusing  him,  as  did 
his  sins.  Among  others,  he  saw  a  man  whom  he  himself  had 
wounded  when  he  was  still  wearing  secular  dress,  and  whose  blood 
cried  against  him.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  given  credit  for 
such  good  things  as  he  had  done.  He  further  noticed  great  open 
pits  in  which  were  fires,  amidst  which  human  spirits  in  the  shape 
of  black  birds  howled  and  cried  piteously,  and  flew  hither  and 
thither.  One  of  the  angels  remarked  to  him  that  God  on  the 
judgment  day  would  relieve  these  souls  from  their  punishment, 

^  Stubbs,  op.  cit.  ;  Did.  of  Chr.  Biog.^  iii.  913. 

'  Parker,  Ang.  Ch.  Calendar,  p.  262. 

^  Op.  cit.,  ed.  1655,  613.  Miss  Arnold-Forster  says  that  the  church  at 
Much  Wenlock  was  formerly  dedicated  to  her,  and  the  fair  there  is  still  held 
on  the  second  Monday  in  March,  St.  Milburga's  day. 


1 1 2  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

and  grant  them  perpetual  peace.  Lower  still  were  other  fiery 
depths,  in  which  the  spirits  were  also  piteously  wailing.  Here, 
said  the  angel,  are  the  souls  for  whom  there  is  no  hope.  He 
also  had  a  view  elsewhere  of  "  the  Paradise  of  God,"  where  every- 
one was  joyful,  and  from  which  a  sweet  fragrance  proceeded. 
Over  the  fiery  depths  was  placed  a  wooden  bridge,  across  which 
the  departed  souls  had  to  pass.  Others  of  them  could  not  do  so, 
however,  and  fell  into  the  fiery  flood ;  others,  again,  waded,  some  up 
to  their  knees,  others  up  to  their  shoulders.  These,  he  was  told, 
were  the  souls  of  those  who  had  committed  lesser  faults.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  fiery  torrent  he  saw  the  resplendent  walls  of  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem,  whither  the  disembodied  souls  wended  after 
crossing  the  river.  Inter  alia,  he  saw  a  struggle  for  the  soul  of  an 
Abbot  between  the  fiends  and  the  angels,  and  he  also  professed  to 
have  seen  the  torments  which  King  Ceolfrid  of  Mercia  was  suffering 
in  the  next  world  for  his  various  evil  deeds.^  These  I  have 
described  on  an  earlier  page. 

A  more  famous  (and  also  a  double  monastery)  existed  in  Mercia 
at  Repton  in  Staffordshire,  which  became  the  burial-place  of  several 
of  the  Mercian  kings.  It  was  formerly  known  as  Hreopadun. 
It  is  a  pity  we  know  so  little  about  it.  It  is  first  mentioned 
in  the  life  of  St.  Guthlac  by  Felix,  who  calls  the  community  "  a 
catholic  congregation."  Guthlac  became  a  monk  there  in  the 
time  of  its  first  recorded  Abbess,  who  was  called  ^Ifthrytha, 
otherwise  Elfthritha  or  Elfrida,  and  who  perhaps  founded  it  about 
697.  We  do  not  know  who  she  was,  but  probably  she  could 
claim  royal  birth.  She  is  named  in  a  letter  written  by  Waldhere, 
Bishop  of  London,  to  Archbishop  Beorhtwald.  In  this  letter 
reference  is  made  to  a  Council  called  together  by  King  Coenred 
of  Mercia,  to  which  his  Bishops  and  grandees  were  summoned  to 
discuss  "  the  reconciliation  of  ^Ifdryda  "  {sic).'^  What  this  recon- 
ciliation refers  to  we  do  not  know,  the  whole  matter  is  a  mystery. 
When  Guthlac  was  old,  the  Abbey  of  Repton  was  under  another 
Abbess,  perhaps  her  sister,  named  Eadburga  (daughter  of  King 
Aldwulf  of  East  Anglia),  who  is  reported  by  Felix  to  have  sent 
him  a  leaden  coffin  and  a  linen  winding-sheet.  I  have  described 
her  dealings  with  St.  Guthlac  on  an  earlier  page.^  Wallingford 
calls  her  ^thelburga.  It  would  seem  that  she  in  later  times 
joined  her  sister  at  Hackness  and  was  buried  there.* 

^  Mon.  Germ.  Hist.y  Epist.  iii.  252-57. 

2  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  iii.  275.     She  is  mentioned  in  the  Liber  Vitae  of 
Durham.  ^  Ante,  ii.  414.  ^  Ante,  iii.  202. 


APPENDIX  I  213 

Let  us  now  turn  to  ..^theldrytha,  generally  known  as  Saint 
Audrey,  whom  we  left  at  Coldingham.^     According  to  Thomas 
of  Ely,2  her  husband,  King  Ecgfrid,  whom  she  had  deserted,  was 
determined   to    take   her  away   by  force    from    the   convent   of 
Coldingham  where  she  had  sheltered,  a  fact  not  mentioned  by 
Eede.    She  therefore  made  up  her  mind  to  escape  and  to  return 
to  East  Anglia,  where  she  had  a  great  possession  in  the  Isle  of  Ely. 
She  set  out  accompanied  by  two  companions  named  Sewenna 
and  Sewera,  and  was  pursued  by  the  King.     She  did  not  go  far, 
but  climbed  a  hill  near   a   place   called   Coldebur   Chesheved, 
which,  says  the  Ely  historian,  means  in  Latin   Caput  Coldebirti. 
This   she  climbed  and  was  supplied   with  food  by  the  country 
people  and  hid  away  for  seven  days,   while  a  spring  of  water 
sprang  up  in  a  very  arid  place  to  furnish  her  with  water.     The 
biographer  relates  as  a  miraculous  fact  that  the  impressions  of  her 
feet  as  she  went  up  and  descended  the  mountain  were  afterwards 
shown  in  the  solid  rock,  and  looked  as  if  made  in  wax  {i?tfusa 
ta7iquam  in  calida  cera).     Setting  out  with  her  companions  she 
reached  the  river  Humber,  and  arrived  at  the  port  of  Wyntryng- 
ham,  a   parish   in   the   northern    division   of  the  wapentake  of 
Manley,  in  the  county  of  Lincoln,  7  J  miles  from  Barton.    Thence 
she  went  on  for  ten  "stadia"  farther,  and  stopped  at  a  village  called 
Alfham  (Raine  says  Altham,  also  called  Alftham).     There  she 
stayed  a  few  days  and  built  a  church,  doubtless  of  wood.    Then  she 
went  on  again  and  lay  down  to  rest  in  a  shady  place  and  planted 
her  walking-stick  in  the  ground.     In  the  morning  it  had  sprouted 
and  presently  grew  into  a  great  ash  tree,  the  largest  in  that  country. 
The  place,  says  Thomas  of  Ely,  is  still  called  pausatio  Etheldredae. 
There  she  built  another  church  to  the  memory  of  the  Blessed  Virgin. 
At    length,  after   their  long  journey,   ^theldrytha  with  her 
companions  (they  included  a  priest  named  Huna,  formerly  a  monk, 
who  had  accompanied  her  and  who  became  a  saint)  reached  her 
own  patrimony,  the  marriage  gift  presented  to  her  by  her  first 
husband,  namely,  the  Isle  of  Ely.     It  is  described  by  Bede  as 
situated  in  the  land  of  the  East  Angles  and  as  containing  about 
600  families  {i.e.  hides).     It  formed,  he   says,  a  kind  of  island 
enclosed  by   marshes,  or  waters,  and  was    so   named   from   the 
number  of  eels  which  were  taken   in   the   adjoining   marshes.^ 

^  Anle,  iii.  206. 

^  Thomas  of  Ely  says  she  was  born  at  Ermynge,  now  Ixminge,  in  Suffolk 
{Ang.  Sac,  i.  597). 
^  Bede^  iv.  19. 


2  14  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

This  simple  etymology  did  not  satisfy  its  historian,  Thomas  of 
Ely,  who  says  it  was  derived  from  two  Hebrew  words,  El  (God) 
and  Ge  (earth),  proving  that  he  was  innocent  of  any  knowledge 
of  Greek  as  well  as  Hebrew.  An  anonymous  writer  apostro- 
phises the  attractions  of  the  place  at  a  later  time  in  some  not 
unmusical  lines : 

Haec  sunt  Elyae,  Lanterna,   Capella  Mariae, 
Atque  MoIeudmujH,   mulium  dans  vinea    Vimitn. 
Cotitinct  insontes,  quos  valiant  undique  pontes. 
Hos  ditant  monies  ;    nee  desiint  Jlumina,  f antes. 
Nomen  ab  anguilla  ducit  Insula  nobilis  ilia. 

{Ang.  Sac,  i.  592.) 

A  very  late  legend,  quite  unsupported  by  any  early  author, 
tells  us  that  St.  Augustine  himself  planted  a  church  in  the 
island  at  a  place  called  Cradendene  {i.e.  Vallis  Crati),  a  mile 
from  the  present  town  of  Ely,  which  was  destroyed  and  desolated 
by  Penda.^  ^theldrytha  herself  built  a  church  on  a  deserted 
place  in  the  island.  There,  with  the  assistance  of  her  brother 
Aldwulf,  she  also  planted  a  double  monastery,  one  for  men  and 
the  other  for  women,  which  she  dedicated  to  St.  Mary.  Over  this 
she  presided  as  Abbess,  and  where  she  received  her  old  friend 
Si.  Wilfrid.2  Bede  says  it  was  reported  of  her  that  from  the 
time  of  her  entering  the  convent  she  never  wore  any  linen,  but 
only  woollen  garments,  and  rarely  washed  in  a  hot  bath  {in 
calidis  balneis),  except  just  before  the  great  festivals  of  Easter, 
Whitsuntide,  and  the  Epiphany,  and  then  she  was  the  last  to 
enter  the  bath  after  she  had  helped  to  wash  all  the  other  servants 
of  God  in  it.  She  seldom  ate  more  than  once  a  day  except  on 
the  great  solemnities,  or  on  urgent  occasions,  or  when  seriously 
ill.  From  matins  she  continued  in  church  till  daybreak,  unless 
when  suffering  from  some  severe  infirmity.  She  was  said  to 
have  prophesied  the  coming  of  the  plague  by  which  she  was  to 
die,  and  the  number  of  those  who  would  perish  in  her  convent. 
She  died  on  the  23rd  of  June  in  679,  seven  years  after  she  had 
become  Abbess,  and,  as  she  had  ordered,  she  was  buried  in  a 
wooden  coffin  and  laid  in  the  cemetery  in  the  regular  succession 
in  which  she  had  died,  and  was  not  honoured  by  a  special 
sepulchre.^     She  was  succeeded  in  the  office  of  Abbess  by  her 

^  Thomas  of  Ely,  Ang.  Sac,  i.  594  and  599.  ^  /^   j^  ^^^^ 

^  Bede,  iv.   19.     She  was  l)uried  by  Huna  {vide  ante),  who  afterwards 
became  an  anchorite  on  a  small  island  in  the  marsh  near  Ely,  which  was 


APPENDIX  I  215 

sister  Sexburga,  who  had  been  the  wife  of  Earconberht,  king  of 
Kent.  When  /Etheldrytha  had  been  buried  sixteen  years,  i.e. 
in  695,  Sexburga  took  up  her  remains  with  the  intention  of 
removing  them  into  the  church.  She  accordingly  ordered  the 
brethren  to  provide  a  suitable  stone  with  which  to  make  a  tomb. 
Bede  says  they  set  out  in  a  boat  {ascetisa  ?iavi)  because  the 
country  of  Ely  {regio  Elye)  was  on  every  side  encompassed  with 
the  sea  or  marshes,  and  contained  no  large  stones.  Presently 
they  came  to  an  abandoned  town  not  far  thence,  which  in  the 
Anglian  language  was  called  Grantchester  (now  a  small  village 
near  Cambridge,  occupying  the  site  of  a  Roman  town),  and  there, 
close  to  the  city  wall,  they  found  a  white  marble  coffin  very 
beautifully  wrought  and  covered  with  a  lid  of  the  same  material. 
This  they  took  back  to  the  monastery. 

When  iEtheldrytha's  wooden  coffin  was  opened,  we  are  told 
by  Bede  that  her  body  was  found  as  free  from  corruption  as  if 
she  had  died  and  been  buried  that  very  day.  This  was  attested, 
he  adds,  by  Bishop  Wilfrid  and  many  others  who  knew  about  it. 
Among  them  was  Cynifrid  the  physician,  who  had  operated  upon 
a  swelling  under  her  jaw  when  she  was  living,  in  order  to  let  out  the 
noxious  matter.  He  reported  that  "  when  the  body  was  taken  out 
of  the  grave  and  put  in  a  position  close  by,  and  while  all  the  con- 
gregation of  the  brethren  were  on  one  side  and  that  of  the  sisters 
on  the  other,  standing  around  and  singing,  the  Abbess  with  a 
few  others  having  gone  on  to  wash  the  remains,  I  heard  the 
corpse  say,  '  Glory  be  to  the  name  of  the  Lord.'  Not  long 
after  they  called  me  in,  and  I  saw  the  body  of  the  Holy  Virgin 
taken  out  of  the  grave  and  laid  on  a  bed  as  if  it  had  been  asleep. 
Then  taking  a  veil  from  her  face,  they  showed  me  the  incision 
I  had  made,  which  had  healed  up,  so  that  instead  of  a  gaping 
wound,  there  was  only  a  slender  scar.  The  linen  clothes  in 
which  the  body  had  been  wrapped  looked  as  fresh  and  perfect  as 
if  they  had  only  just  been  placed  about  her  chaste  limbs." 

Cynifrid  added  that  the  dead  Abbess  used  to  say  that 
the  trouble  in  her  neck  had  arisen  because  she  had  there 
borne  the  needless  weight  of  jewels.  By  having  had  this 
pain  in  this  world,  she  trusted  to  be  relieved  from  the  future 
punishment  due  to  her  levity,  and  said  that  where  she  had 
had  gold  and  pearls,  a  red  and  burning  boil  grew  on  her  neck. 
It  was  reported  that  by  the  touch  of  her  garments  devils  were 

called    Huneya   after    him.      His   miracles   became   famous,    and    therefore 
valuable,  and  his  remains  were  removed  to  Thorney  Island  {Ang.  Sac,  i.  600). 


2i6  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

expelled  from  possessed  bodies  and  other  disorders  were  some- 
times cured ;  while  by  touching  the  coffin  in  which  she  was  first 
buried,  with  their  heads,  suffering  men  were  said  to  have  been 
cured  of  diseases  of  the  eyes.  Having  washed  the  body,  the 
virgins  put  it  in  new  clothes,  carried  it  into  the  church,  and  laid 
it  in  the  marble  sarcophagus,  which  had  been  taken  with  due 
ceremony  thither.  The  body  just  fitted  it,  and  there  was  after- 
wards a  hollow  where  it  had  lain.^ 

"  The  present  stately  fane  of  Ely,"  says  Mr.  Raine,  "  owes  its 
existence  to  the  renown  of  St.  iEtheldryda,  who  was  regarded  as 
one  of  the  greatest  of  the  mediaeval  saints."     The  church  she 
had  constructed  perished  in  the  Danish   inroad  of  866-7,  but 
the  marauders   did  no  harm  to    the  coffin.     The  building  was 
restored   about   a  century  afterwards    by  King  Edgar,  when   it 
became  a  home  of  Benedictine  monks  and  by  degrees  acquired 
great  estates.     In  1107  the  see  of  Ely  was  founded,  and  its  long 
series  of  abbots  came  to  an  end.     One  of  the  last  official  acts  of 
Richard,  the  last  abbot,  was  the  translation  of  St.  ^theldrytha's 
remains  to  the  Norman  church  he  had  built.     This  was  in  the 
presence  of  the  Bishop  of  Thetford  and  a  great  concourse  of 
people. 2     William  of  Malmesbury  says  that  when  her  tomb  was 
then  opened,  the  body  was  found  intact  and  she  looked  as  if  she 
was  sleeping.     The  silken  covering  to  her  head,  her  veil   and 
garments  were  all    intact,  her   cheeks    were  flushed,  her   teeth 
white,  her  lips  a  little  shrunk,  and  her  breasts  small.^     Over  her 
old  marble  tomb  was  now  raised  a  richly  ornamented  wooden 
shrine,  which  was  carried  about  on  festival  days.     In  1144  the 
monks  stripped  the  shrine  of  much  of  its  silver  work  in  order 
to  meet  the  pecuniary  necessities   of  Bishop  Nigel,  who  later 
gave  them  the  Manor  of  Hadstock  for  the  purpose  of  ornament- 
ing and  repairing  the  shrine,  and  it  was  afterwards  much  enriched 
by  Bishops  Redel  and  de  Burgh.     In   1235  Bishop  Northwold, 
who  built  the  splendid  choir,  erected  a  new  shrine  for  ^Etheldrytha 
and  the  other  Saints  of  the  House  in  the  presbytery.     Of  this 
a  sketch  is  still  preserved.     The  shrine  was  destroyed  at  the 
Reformation.^ 

William  of  Malmesbury  reports  a  curious  miracle  of  her. 
When  the  Danes  devastated  the  church,  one  of  them  marched 
off  with  the  rich  covering  of  her  tomb  and  then  struck  the  latter 

^  Bede,  iv.  191. 

^  Thomas  of  Ely,  Ang.  Sacra,  i.  613  ;  Did.  of  Chr.  Biog.,  ii.  221. 

^G.P.^  p.  325.  ^  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.^  ii.  221. 


APPENDIX   I  217 

with  his  two-headed  axe.  This  made  a  hole  in  it,  but  a  fragment 
flew  off,  struck  him  on  the  eye  and  knocked  him  senseless. 
Some  time  after,  one  of  the  secular  priests  attached  to  the  mon- 
astery wanting  to  make  sure  that  the  body  of  the  saint  was  not 
corrupted,  inserted  a  candle  into  the  hole  just  named,  and  tried 
to  drag  her  garments  through  it ;  but  the  saint  herself  pulled  them 
back  so  as  to  cover  her  naked  body.  He  was  punished  by 
becoming  half-witted.^ 

Bede  wrote  a  poem  on  St.  ^theldrytha  which  he  inserts  in 
his  Ecclesiastical  History^  and  in  which  pagan  allusions  are  inter- 
spersed with  Christian  ones.  I  think  it  should  fmd  a  place  here 
as  a  specimen  of  his  own  versification  in  Latin,  which  our  first 
historian  thought  worthy  of  being  preserved  in  his  great  work. 
It  runs  thus : 

*'  Alma  Deus  Trinitas,  quae  secula  cuncta  gubemas, 
Adnue  jam  coeptis,  alma  Deus  Trinitas. 
Bella  Maro  resonet,  nos  pacis  dona  canamus  : 
Munera  nos  Christi,  bella  Maro  resonet. 
Carmina  casta  mihi,   foedae  non  raptus  Helenae, 
Luxus  erit  lubricis,  carmina  casta  mihi. 
Dona  superna  loquar,  miserae  non  praelia  Trojae 
Terra  quibus  gaudet :    dona  superna  loquar. 
En  Deus  altus  adit  venerandae  Virginis  alvum: 
Liberet  ut  homines  en  Deus  altus  adit. 
Femina  Virgo  parit  mundi  devota  Parentem, 
Porta  Maria  Dei,   femina  Virgo  parit. 
Gaudet  arnica  cohors,  de  Virgine  matre  Tonantis  : 
Virginitate  micans  gaudet  amica  cohors. 
Hujus  honor  genuit  caslo  de  germine  plures, 
Virgineos  flores  hujus  honor  genuit. 
Ignibus  usta  feris  Virgo  non  cessat  Agatha, 
Eulalia  et  perfert  ignibus  usta  feris. 
Casta  feras  superat  mentis  pro  culmine  Tecla, 
Euphemia  sacra  casta  feras  superat. 
Laeta  ridet  gladios  ferro  robustior  Agnes, 
Caecilia  infestos  laeta  ridet  gladios, 
Multus  in  orbe  viget  per  sobria  cord  a  triumphus, 
Sobrietatis  amor  multus  in  orbe  viget. 
Nostra  quoque  egregia  jam  tempora  virgo  beavit : 
Aedilthryda  nitet  nostra  quoque  egregia 
Orta  patre  eximio,  regali  et  stemmate  clara  : 
Nobilior  Domino  est,  orta  patre  eximio. 
Percipit  inde  decus  reginae,  et  sceptra  sub  astris, 
Plus  super  astra  manens,  percipit  inde  decus. 
Quid  petis  alma  virum,   Sponso  jam  dedita  summo? 

*  William  of  Malmesbury,  G.P.,  323  and  324. 


2 1 8  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Sponsus  adest  Christus,  quid  petis  alma  virum  ? 

Regis  ut  aetherei  matrem  jam  credo  sequaris  : 

Tu  quoque  sis  mater  Regis  ut  aetherei. 

Sponsa  dicata  Deo  bis  sex  regnaverat  annis, 

Inque  monasterio  est  sponsa  dicata  Deo. 

Tota  sacrata  polo  celsis  ubi  floruit  actis 

Reddidit  atque  animam  tota  sacrata  polo. 

Virginis  alma  caro  est  tumulata  bis  octo  Novembres, 

Nee  putet  in  tumulo  virginis  alma  caro. 

Christe,  tui  est  operis,  quia  vestis  et  ipsa  sepulchro 

Inviolata  nitet :   Christe,  tui  est  operis. 

Hydros  et  ater  abit  sacrae  pro  vestis  honore, 

Morbi  diff"ugiunt,  hydros  et  ater  abit 

Zelus  in  hoste  furit  quondam  qui  vicerat  Evam  : 

Virgo  triumphat  ovans,  zelus  in  hoste  furit. 

Aspice  nupta  Deo,  quae  sit  tibi  gloria  terris  ; 

Quae  maneat  caelis  aspice  nupta  Deo. 

Munera  laeta  capis  festivis  fulgida  taedis, 

Ecce  venit  Sponsus,  munera  laeta  capis. 

Et  nova  dulcisono  modularis  carmina  plectro  : 

Sponsa  hymno  exultas  et  nova  dulcisono. 

Nullus  ab  Altithroni  comitatu  segregat  agni, 

Quam  affectu  tulerat  nullus  ab  Altithroni."^ 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  poem  is  an  experiment  in  verse- 
making,  in  which  the  same  clause  of  three  words  occurs  in  each 
two  of  the  successive  lines. 

When  St.  Chad  went  to  Lastingham  there  went  with  him 
a  certain  notable  person  called  Wini  or  Owin,  who  employed 
himself  in  manual  labour  outside  the  monastery.  He 
had  been  born  in  the  kingdom  of  East  Anglia,  and  had  ac- 
companied ^theldrytha  when  she  went  to  marry  King  Ecgfrid 
in  660,  as  steward  of  her  household.  Bede,  iv.  3,  calls  him 
priffius  ministrorum  et  princeps  domus  ejus,  which  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  version  is  translated  "the  chief  of  her  thanes  and  house 
and  of  all  her  ealdormen."  On  the  death  of  St.  Chad  he  ap- 
parently returned  to  Ely,  and  is  reported  to  have  lived  at 
Winford,  near  Haddenham.  Bishop  Browne  says  that  some  years 
ago  the  base  of  the  village  cross  at  Haddenham,  which  had  sunk 
deep  into  the  ground,  was  dug  out,  and  it  was  found  to  be  in- 
scribed with  the  words,  Liicem  Ttimn  Ovino  da  Deus  et  requiem 
(Give  Thy  light,  O  God,  and  rest  to  Owin).^  The  stone  is  now 
in  the  nave  at  Ely.  His  death-day  in  the  calendar  is  4th  March. 
The  authors  of  the  Aa.  SS.  Mart.,  i.  312,  say  there  was  once  a 
church  dedicated  to  him  at  Gloucester.  Thomas  of  Ely  calls 
^  /I.E.,  iv.  20,  2  (^affx/.  of  the  Heptarchy,  214, 


APPENDIX  I  219 

him  custos  et  procer  of  the  Queen,  and  he  probably  had  charge 
of  her  patrimony  of  Ely.  Bede  tells  us  he  abandoned  this 
dignified  position,  and  how,  attracted  by  devotion  to  the  saint,  he 
had  joined  him  with  his  axe  and  hatchet,  and  inasmuch  as  he 
was  no  scholar,  he  asked  permission  to  be  allowed  to  join  the 
brotherhood  as  a  workman.  When  St.  Chad  became  Bishop 
of  Lichfield  he  accompanied  |him  thither.  I  have  previously 
described  the  pretty  legend  of  St.  Chad's  death,  in  which  he  so 
prominently  figures. 

^theldrytha  was  succeeded  as  Abbess  of  Ely  by  her  sister 
Sexburga.  She  had  been  married  to  Earconberht,  king  of  Kent, 
by  whom  she  had  had  two  sons,  Ecgberht  and  Llothaire,  who 
successively  ruled  over  the  kingdom  after  their  father,  and  two 
daughters,  Earcongota  and  Eormengilda.^  Thomas  of  Ely  has 
partially  confused  her  with  another  Sexburga,  who  was  queen  of 
Mercia.  On  the  death  of  her  husband  she  built  a  nunnery  at 
Sheppey,  which  was  endowed  by  her  son  King  Ecgberht  with  lands, 
etc.  There  she  adopted  the  veil  and  collected  a  body  of  seventy- 
eight  disciples.^  In  the  Hist.  Elie?isis,  i.  chap.  36,  which  quotes 
a  book  of  her  Gesta^  she  is  said  to  have  received  the  veil  from 
Archbishop  Theodore.  According  to  Florence  of  Worcester,^ 
she  founded  the  monastery  as  a  burial-place  for  her  husband, 
but  Thorn  {Col.,  iT6g)  says  he  was  buried  at  St.  Augustine's 
at  Canterbury.     He  may  have  been  removed  there. 

After  being  for  some  time  at  Sheppey,  she  in  679  joined  her 
sister  ^theldrytha  at  Ely.  The  Book  of  Ely  tells  us  how  before 
she  left  she  foretold  to  her  nuns  the  ravages  which  would  pres- 
ently be  caused  by  the  Danes,  which  had  been  disclosed  to 
her  in  a  dream.  She  also  endowed  the  monastery  with  many 
lands.^  She  was  buried  near  vEtheldrytha  in  the  church  at 
Ely.  When  in  11 06  the  new  church  there  was  rebuilt,  the 
bodies  of  the  two  saintly  sisters  were  translated,  and  the  tomb 
of  Sexburga  was  opened.  Her  remains,  partly  bones  and  partly 
dust,  were  found  wrapped  in  silk,  each  in  a  separate  shrine. 
They  lay  in  the  tomb  just  as  St.  Ethelwold,  who  had  sealed  it 

1  Thomas  of  Ely,  Ang.  Sac,  i.  595. 

' /*.  i-  595,  596.  *  M.H.B.,(yz(i. 

*  The  year  of  her  death  is  not  known,  but  must  have  been  after  673.  Iler 
death-day  in  the  calendar  was  July  the  6th.  A  fragment  of  an  eleventh- 
century  Life  of  her  is  preserved  in  the  Lambeth  MS.  427  (see  Hardy,  Cat. 
Brit.  Hist.,  i.  362),  and  certain  lections  on  her  life  are  preserved  (see  MS. 
Cott.  Cat.,  A,  viii.  89-91). 


2  20  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

with  lead,  had  placed  them.  They  were  now  folded  in  clean 
wrappers  and  the  tomb  was  again  fastened  with  lead  by  Abbot 
Richard,  and  placed  on  the  left  of  that  of  her  sister.^ 

Eormengilda,  the  daughter  of  Sexburga  by  Earconberht,  king 
of  Kent,  married  the  great  Mercian  ruler,  Wulfhere,  on  whose 
death  in  674  she  joined  her  mother  Sexburga  at  Sheppey  and 
took  the  veil  there.  When  her  mother  moved  to  Ely  she  became 
Abbess  of  Sheppey,  and  on  the  death  of  Sexburga  she  was  elected 
Abbess  of  Ely.  There  she  died  and  was  buried  with  her  mother 
and  aunt.2  When  the  church  at  Ely  was  rebuilt  in  the  year  1 106, 
and  the  various  saints  buried  there  were  translated,  her  tomb 
was  opened  and,  according  to  Thomas  of  Ely,  her  remains  were 
found  lying  in  a  grave  without  any  covering  {absque  vela?ni?ie  I  /), 
as  Bishop  Ethelwold  must  have  placed  them.  They  were  now 
collected,  wrapped  in  a  clean  cloth,  and  deposited  in  a  tomb  on 
the  left  of  those  of  St.  ^theldrytha.  It  also  was  duly  sealed 
with  lead.^ 

Eormengilda's  daughter  by  Wulfhere  was  called  Werburga. 
On  her  father's  death  she  went  with  her  mother  to  Kent 
and  lived  under  her  at  Sheppey,  and  apparently  accompanied 
her  to  Ely.  As  we  read  in  her  Life^  she  was  induced  by  her 
uncle,  King  ^thelred,  to  preside  over  a  monastery  in  Mercia,  in 
which  kingdom  she  became  perhaps  the  most  famous  female  saint. 
She  is  reported  to  have  founded  monasteries  at  Trickingham, 
Handbury,  and  Weedon.^  She  apparently  presided  over  all  the 
monasteries  of  her  own  foundation,  and  according  to  her  English 
Ufe,  when  her  mother  died  she  also  succeeded  to  the  government 
of  Ely.  It  further  reports  that  there  was  a  great  anxiety  among 
her  various  monasteries  as  to  where  she  would  be  buried  when 
she  should  die.  This  she  decided  for  them  by  selecting  that  at 
Heanbirig  {i.e.  Handbury),  about  five  miles  from  Repton,  and 
she  left  instructions  that  wherever  she  might  die  her  remains 
were  to  be  translated  thither.  She  actually  died  at  Trytengeham 
{i.e.  Trickingham),  and  was  laid  away  on  the  3rd  of  February,^ 
which  is  St.  Werburg's  Day.  The  very  same  night  the  com- 
munity from  Handbury  came  and  carried  off  the  body  with 
great  joy  to  their  own  abbey.     Nine  years  later  it  was  reported 

^  Thomas  of  Ely,  Ang.  Sac,  i.  613.  2  j^^  ^^5^ 

3  Ang.  Sac,  i.  613.  4  Bright,  op.  cit.  456. 

'  William  of   Worcester  assigns  21st  June  to  St.   Werburga  of  Chester. 

This  perhaps  refers  to  the  translation  of  her  remains  thither.     Stubbs,  Diet, 

of  Chr,  Biog.,  iv.  1174,  1175. 


APPENDIX  I  221 

to  be  still  undecayed.     This  was  in  the  reign  of  King  Ceolred  of 
Mercia,  who  died  in  716. 

The  monasteries  presided  over  by  Werburga  were  doubtless 
all  destroyed  and  ravaged  by  the  Danes.  According  to  the  late 
writers,  Brompton  and  Higden,  when  in  875  Burgred,  king  of 
Mercia,  was  driven  from  Repton  by  them,  her  remains  were 
translated  to  Chester.  The  nunnery  there  where  they  afterwards 
lay,  and  which  was  dedicated  to  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  was 
restored  by  Athelstan,  who  rededicated  it  to  St.  Werburga. ^  It 
is  curious  that  Jocelyn  does  not  mention  this  translation. 

As  a  proof  of  the  popularity  of  the  saint  may  be  mentioned 
the  number  of  dedications  of  churches  to  her  which  still  remain  ; 
others  were  probably  changed  in  Norman  times.  Dr.  Stubbs 
thus  enumerates  them.  He  says  :  "  Not  only  is  the  great  church 
at  Chester  dedicated  in  her  name,  but  at  least  eight  churches  in 
other  parts  of  England  are  called  after  her.  One  of  these,  Hoo 
St.  Werburgh,  lies  at  no  great  distance  from  Sheppey ;  others  are 
at  Derby,  Bristol,  Warburton  in  Cheshire,  Kingsley  in  Stafford- 
shire, Blackwell  in  Derbyshire,  Wembury  in  Devonshire,  Warb- 
stow  in  Cornwall,  and  a  church  in  Dublin. ^  The  last  three  of 
these  churches  are  far  from  Mercia  and  not  easy  to  explain. ^ 
The  names  of  Werburgmore  in  Mercia^  and  Werburglingham  in 
Thanet  ^  may  denote  property  which  was  either  by  dedication  or 
inheritance  connected  with  her."*^ 

The  great  place  St.  Werburga  fills  in  the  history  of  Chester 
is  doubtless  due  to  the  wealth  of  her  church  there,  which  was 
very  richly  endowed  by  Earl  Leofric  in  1057.  This  church  was 
rebuilt  afterwards,  and  was  attached  first  to  a  Benedictine  abbey, 
and  at  the  Reformation  became  the  cathedral  of  the  diocese. 

Some  of  the  miracles  attributed  to  her  are  picturesque.  Of 
these  it  will  sufifice  to  mention  two.  On  one  occasion  a  flock  of 
wild  geese  alighted  among  the  reeds  on  some  land  of  hers.  She 
told  her  servant  to  drive  them  into  the  farmstead.  He  was  most 
surprised  to  find  the  wild  geese  were  so  tractable.  Thinking  no 
one  would  find  it  out,  he  took  one  of  them,  cooked  it  and  ate  it. 
The  theft,  however,  was  disclosed  to  his  mistress  by  the  unusual 
behaviour  of  the  other  geese.     She  had  the  bones  of  the  cooked 

^  William  of  Malmesbury,  G.P.^  308.  ^  Stubbs,  loc.  cit. 

'  Miss  Arnold-Forster  adds  to  these,  churches  at   Hanbury,  Treneglos, 
and  formerly  at  Spondon. 

^  Kemble,  CD.,  78,  217.  ^  Thomas  of  Elmham,  p.  19. 

^  Stubbs,  op.  cit.  iv.  11 75. 


22  2   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

bird  collected,  and  miraculously  restored,  not  only  its  flesh  and 
feathers,  but  also  its  Hfe.  Thereupon  the  whole  flock  paid  her 
reverence  and  flew  away.^  On  another  occasion  "  she  miracu- 
lously caused  the  head  of  a  steward,  who  was  scourging  a  lady 
named  Ailnoth,  to  turn  round  on  his  shoulders  so  that  he  looked 
backwards.  It  was  afterwards  put  right  again  at  the  intercession 
of  the  saint."  ^ 

I  have  now  related  the  story  of  two  of  King  Anna's  famous 
daughters,    ^2theldrytha    and    Sexburga,    and    of    the    latter's 
descendants,  and  will   turn    to  a  third   one  called  Withburga, 
whose  life  is  recorded  by  Thomas  of  Ely.     He  says  that  she  was 
sent  with  her  nurse  to  be  brought  up  at  Holkham  near  the  sea, 
where  a  church  was  afterwards  built  in  her  honour  and  named 
Withburgestowe.     On  her  father's  death  she  determined  to  adopt 
a  religious  life  and  withdrew  to    Dereham,  twenty  miles  from 
Holkham,   where  he  had   a   property,    and   built  a  monastery 
there.     While   it   was    being   built    she    was    reduced   to    great 
want   and  had  to  subsist  on  the  dry  bread   provided  for  the 
workmen.     Thereupon,  says  the  saga,  the  Virgin  came  to  her 
help  and  bade  her  send   some  girls    to   the    bridge   over   the 
neighbouring  stream  where  they  would  find    two  wild  animals, 
who  would  allow  them  to  milk  them.     The  maids  duly  went  there 
and  found  two  does,  and  secured  so  much  milk  from  them  that  it 
filled  a  large  vessel  which  had  to  be  carried  by  its  two  handles  by 
two  men ;  whereupon  the  whole  community's  needs  were  supplied. 
Malmesbury  says  that  she  was  attended  by  a  tame  doe,  which 
was  shot  by  a  ruthless  prsefect,  who  thereupon  was  struck  with 
the  king's  evil.     Withburga  died    on   the  17th  of   March  743, 
and  was  buried  in  the  graveyard  at  Dereham.      After  fifty-five 
years,  her  body  was  found  to  be  uncorrupted  and  was  translated 
into  the  church  in  797.     If  this  date  is  right,  says  Stubbs,  she 
must  then  have  been  ninety  years  old  (for  her  father  Anna  died 
in  654).     There  she  remained  till  the  time  of  King  Eadgar,  that 
is  to  say,  until  the  8th  of  July  974,  in  which  year  and  day  Abbot 
Brythnoth   of   Ely,  with    the    consent   of  the  king  and  Bishop 
-^thelwold,   removed  the  body  to   his   monastery  and  put  her 
beside  her  sisters.     The  life  of  the  saint,  from  which  Thomas 
of  Ely  reports  these  facts,  was  no  doubt  used  both  by  Florence 
of  Worcester  ^  and  the  compiler  of  the  later  MSS.  of  the  A?tglo- 

^  William  of  Malmesbury,  Gest,  Pont.,  ed.  Hamilton,  308-9. 
"  Stubbs,  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog,^  iv.  11 74. 
'  Vide  sub  an.  798. 


APPENDIX   I  223 

Saxon  Chronicle.    In  the  genealogical  table  attached  to  Florence, 
Withburga  is  wrongly  called  Withgytha. 

In  regard  to  her  translation,  William  of  Malmesbury  reports 
a  miracle.  He  says  that  the  body  was  transferred  by  water, 
which  was  then  the  only  means  of  approach  to  the  island  of  Ely. 
The  natives  of  the  place  opposed  the  removal  very  violently. 
The  boatmen  lost  their  way  in  the  monotonous  marshes,  but 
were  at  length  guided  by  a  column  of  fire  from  heaven.  He 
adds  that  in  his  day  artificial  roads  had  been  made  across  the 
fens  by  putting  embankments  in  the  water,  over  which  people 
could  go  dryshod.^  At  the  place  where  she  was  originally 
buried  at  Dereham,  a  fountain  of  pure  water  is  said  to  have 
broken  out.^ 

When  Abbot  Richard  rebuilt  the  church  at  Ely,  he  again 
translated  the  body  of  St.  Withburga  with  those  of  her  sisters. 
Thomas  of  Ely  tells  us  that  Withburga's  remains  were  found 
fresh  and  intact,  as  were  the  vestments  in  which  she  was 
buried.  So  also  was  her  wooden  coffin ;  its  iron  hasps 
(ferrets)  and  keys,  however,  were  corroded.  A  monk  of 
Westminster  called  Warner  raised  the  remains  and  proved 
that  her  arms  and  hands  were  still  flexible.  This  was  also 
seen  and  attested  by  Herbert,  Bishop  of  Thetford,  and 
many  others  who  were  there.  The  saint  was  buried  again 
close  to  her  sisters.  Malmesbury  grows  eloquent  over  her 
peaceful  face,  her  florid  cheeks,  her  white  teeth,  her  shrunken 
lips,  and  her  small  breasts.^  The  facts  reported  about  the 
freshness  of  her  remains  caused  a  great  cult  of  them  to 
be  prosecuted,  and  they  were  presently  placed  in  a  silver 
reliquary.  A  polemic  arose  about  them  between  the  Bishops 
of  Lincoln  and  Ely,  the  former  of  whom  urged  that  the 
treasure  had  been  improperly  removed  from  his  diocese.  The 
dispute  was  submitted  to  the  king,  and  afterwards  to  the  Pope 
for  decision,  but  it  would  appear  that  she  continued  to  rest 
beside  her  sisters  until  the  Reformation,  when  their  remains 
were  all  ruthlessly  destroyed. 

We  have  told  the  story  of  Eormengilda,  one  of  Sexburga's 
daughters.  We  must  now  turn  to  the  latter's  other  daughter, 
Earcongota.  Of  her,  Bede  says  that  she  joined  the  monas- 
tery founded  by  Saint  Fara  at  Brie,  known  as  Faremoutier 
en  Brie,  and  also  as  Eboriacum,  to  which  the  Frankish  Queen 
Bathildis  was  a  great  benefactress.     There  Earcongota  became 

1  G.P.,  325.  2  ^„^^  sacr.,  605  and  606.  '^  G.P.,  325. 


2  24  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Abbess.  Bede  says  that  many  works  and  miracles  were  reported 
of  her  by  the  people  near  the  monastery,  but  he  limits  himself 
to  one  relating  to  her  departure  from  the  world.  When  the 
day  of  her  death  was  approaching,  she  visited  the  several  nuns 
in  that  part  of  the  monastery  where  the  very  old  and  infirm 
who  had  been  especially  godly  were  lodged.  She  commended 
herself  to  their  prayers,  and  told  them  she  knew  by  revelation  she 
was  about  to  die,  and  said  she  had  seen  a  number  of  men  all 
dressed  in  white  enter  the  monastery.  On  her  asking  them  what 
they  wanted  and  what  they  were  doing  there,  they  told  her  they 
had  come  to  carry  away  "the  gold  medal  which  had  come  to 
them  from  Kent."  When  the  night  had  nearly  passed  and 
dawn  had  arrived,  says  Bede,  she  left  the  darkness  of  the  world 
and  departed  to  the  light  of  heaven.  This  is  a  proof  that  the 
monastery  was  a  double  one. 

Many  of  the  brethren  declared  that  they  had  plainly  heard 
a  concert  of  angels  singing  and  a  noise  as  of  a  great  multitude 
entering  the  monastery.  "  On  going  out  they  saw  an  extraordinary 
light  sent  down  from  heaven,  which  conducted  that  holy  soul, 
released  from  the  bonds  of  the  flesh,  to  the  joys  of  heaven." 
The  body  of  the  saint  was  buried  in  the  church  of  the  proto- 
martyr  Stephen.  Three  days  later  it  was  thought  fit  to  take  up 
the  stone  covering  of  the  grave,  and  to  raise  it  higher  in  the  same 
place ;  whereupon  so  great  a  fragrance  proceeded  from  below 
that  it  seemed  to  those  present  as  if  a  storehouse  of  balsams 
had  been  opened. 

Earcongota  was  not  the  only  descendant  of  King  Anna 
who  presided  over  the  famous  Abbey  of  Faremoutier.  Her 
aunt  ^thelberga  (who  is  called  his  natural  daughter  by  Bede)  ^ 
also  went  there,  and  Bede  has  something  to  say  of  her.  He 
tells  us  that  whilst  she  was  Abbess  she  began  to  build  a  church 
in  the  monastery  in  honour  of  all  the  Apostles,  where  her  body 
might  be  laid ;  but  she  died  before  it  was  half  finished,  and  was 
nevertheless  buried  in  the  very  spot  in  the  church  which  she  had 
fixed.  The  brethren  were  at  the  time  occupied  with  other  matters, 
and  the  building  was  stopped  for  seven  years,  and  then  finding 
that  the  work  before  them  was  too  great,  they  determined  to 
give  it  up  entirely  and  to  translate  the  remains  of  the  Abbess 

^  This  phrase  in  this  particular  place  is  probably  meant  to  contrast  her 
with  Soethryd,  who  is  called  the  daughter  of  his  wife.  But  it  is  well  to 
remember  that  the  phrase  was  used  in  its  modern  sense  as  early  as  the  time 
of  Ulpian  (see  Plummer,  ii.  149). 


APPENDIX  I  225 

to  some  church  already  finished.  When  they  opened  the  coffin 
they  found  the  body  quite  fresh.  Having  washed  it  and  put 
fresh  clothes  on  it,  they  translated  it  to  the  Church  of  the 
Blessed  Stephen,  and  her  nativity  was  celebrated  there  on  the 
7th  of  July.i 

There  was  a  third  English  lady  who  joined  the  same  com- 
munity at  Faremoutier,  namely  Saethryd.  Bede  calls  her  the 
daughter  of  the  wife  of  Anna,  and  she  was  therefore  his  step- 
daughter, which  points  to  his  wife  having  been  twice  married. 

Let  us  now  return  again  to  Kent.  As  we  have  seen, 
Eormenred,  the  eldest  son  of  Eadbald,  king  of  Kent,  died 
before  his  father,  leaving  by  his  wife  Oslawa  two  sons  and  two 
daughters.  The  former  were  murdered  at  the  instance  of  their 
uncle  Ecgberht,  the  younger  son  of  Eadbald.^  One  of  her 
daughters,  Eormenburga  or  Eomenberga,  styled  Domneva, 
married  Merewald,  the  ruler  of  the  Hwiccas,  under  the  supremacy 
of  Mercia,  and  the  reported  founder  of  a  monastery  at  Leo- 
minster. He  was  a  younger  son  of  Penda.  They  had  a  son, 
Merewin,  and  three  daughters — Mildred,  Milburga,  and  Milgith. 
We  have  already  followed  the  fortunes  of  Milburga.  Apparently, 
after  the  death  of  her  husband,  Eormenberga  was  invited  to 
return  to  Kent  by  her  uncle,  King  Ecgberht,^  who  offered  her 
a  handsome  estate  as  a  compensation  for  the  homicide  of  her 
brothers.^  He  left  it  to  her  choice  where  the  estate  should  be, 
and  she  fixed  upon  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  reputed,  as  Bede  tells  us, 
to  be  the  most  fruitful  part  of  England,  and  told  the  king  that 
she  would  like  to  have  it  there.  It  had  apparently  belonged 
to  Thunor,  the  murderer  of  her  brothers,  and  she  asked  that 
she  might  have  as  much  land  as  a  hunted  hind  could  gallop 
round  in  one  course.  This  the  king  granted,  and  when  the 
hind  reached  a  great  mound  called  Thunorslaw  {Agger  vastus  illi 
loco  impositus  qui  Thunorisleauw^  dtcitur),  Thunor  indignantly 
asked  the  king  how  much  longer  he  intended  following  the  dumb 
animal,  whereupon  the  earth  opened. '^  The  MS.  life  of  the  Saint 
by  y^lfric  here  ends  abruptly,  but  Symeon  of  Durham,  who 
continues  the  story,  says  that  Thunor  was  swallowed  up  in  the 

^  Bede,  H.E.,  iii.  8.  2  Ante,  i.  247. 

'  It  is  possible  that  she  may  have  been  the  widow  of  Ecgfrid,  King  of 
Northumbria,  who  had  the  same  name  and  possibly  married  him  when  he 
was  deserted  by  Saint  /Etheldrytha. 

*  Ante,  i.  248.  *  It  was  afterwards  called  Thunorsleap. 

^  Hardy,  op,  cit.  i.  382.  383. 
VOL.  III. — 15 


2  26  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

chasm  with  his  horse  and  arms,  whereupon  the  king  ordered  his 
body  to  be  covered  with  a  great  cairn  of  stones ;  his  soul,  says 
the  Monk  of  Durham,  was  reserved  for  everlasting  burning  in  the 
dreadful  fires  of  hell.     "  The  place,"  he  adds,  "  is  called  by  way- 
farers Thunersleap."    This  name,  which  is  a  corruption,  no  doubt, 
gave  rise  to  the  legend  about  the  chasm  and  Thunor  having  leapt 
into  it.     The  real  name  of  the  cairn,  as  we  learn  from  Jocelyn 
and  Capgrave,  was  Thunorslaw,  i.e.  Thunor's  burial-mound.     A 
very  interesting  map  of  the  island  of  Thanet,  with  the  course  of 
the  stag  traced  on  it,  is  given  in  the  MS.  of  Thomas  of  Elmham. 
Eormenberga  built  a  monastery  and  church   on    the  land 
made  over  to  her  by  King  Ecgberht,  which  was  dedicated  to  the 
Virgin.^   When  she  had  built  her  monastery,  since  widely  known 
as  Minster,  in  Thanet,  she  dedicated  it  to  the  memory  of  her 
two    murdered    brothers,  and    determined  to   set  her   daughter 
Mildred  over  it.     She  accordingly  sent  her  to  be  trained  abroad. 
Symeon  of  Durham,  no  doubt  following  ^Ifric's  Life  of  Mildred, 
merely  says  ''Hn  trafismarinas  partes" ;   while  Jocelyn  says  ex- 
pressly she  was  sent  to  Kalas,  i.e.  Chelles,  near  Paris,  a  favourite 
place  of  education  for  the  daughters  of  Saxon  nobles.^     At  this 
point  Jocelyn  relates  one  of  his  extravagant  stories.     He  says 
that    that   monastery  was    then    presided    over   by  the   Abbess 
Wilcoma  —  doubtless     an     Englishwoman    {quod    bene    venias 
resonat    a?iglica    lingua).      A    kinsman    of    this    Abbess    being 
anxious  to  marry  Mildred,  the  latter  refused,  whereupon  we  are 
gravely  told  she  was  thrown   into  a  furnace  by  Wilcoma,  but 
miraculously  escaped  unhurt.     The  Abbess  then  beat  her  and 
tortured  her  in  various  ways,  but  with  no  better  success.    Mildred 
contrived  to  inform  her  mother  of  her  position.     She  sent  the 
message  by  the  bearer  of  a  psalter,  which  she  had  herself  written 
and  which  she  now  sent  with  some  of  her  hair,  no  doubt  to 
identify  the  sender.     Her  mother  commanded  her  to  return,  but 
the  Abbess  refused  to  let  her  go,  whereupon  she  furtively  escaped 
and  landed   at  Ipplesfleot,  i.e.   Ebbsfleet,  where  a  chapel  was 
afterwards  built  to  commemorate  the  event.^     In  her  Life  we  are 
told  that,  on  landing,  the  saint  impressed  her  feet  miraculously 
on  the  squared  stone  on  which  she  stepped,  which  afterwards 
effected  miracles  of  healing.*     She  brought  with  her  from  France 
some  vestments  and  relics,  together  with  a  nail  from  Christ's 
cross  (clavis  crucifixionis  Dominicae).     She  joined  her  mother's 

^  Symeon  of  Durham,  M.H.B.y  649.  ^  Hardy,  op.  cit.  i.  377. 

^  lb.  ^  This  seems  a  repetition  of  a  similar  story  told  of  Augustine. 


li,ubi*<|o««itirti[bfn^.nVili(tariTT 
oii|f\*iuJyini|R»niEniini»mfr.nrtM- 

iittwuu»mf«;  fSip  nm fwmiCrt^fi 

rf»iniE(iiii|jrin&wfiCip|ifiuEifi 
&utbitfl(ii?tii  jKTuMnifrRinnTntidti 

%  tt»jiiini(«fnfl:misTtft(ti  |t9(  moJRi'i 

_  ^    _    . fim n (iipnittifi anitmnti  mi^iip 

f   _.    .^ ^^  I        ^  »<ff»fwvinai»ttiOiairri*bfthfim*«r 


TO  c•nnnnlrlr^nt^l^''yrulcr  .Huaitft 

Uf^my^m^niT  nrni  rm  i  mhiTi'a 
ff  nnctft  quinA  ffn>*fim'tB\nffkrt  u 

nrrTimmi^iunmqnvnv-HinnatiTur 

t(irarI»I110(liTfiinyin(pjfVo|l&  n|iK 
nil  t(RiHTiiV(|,J|itT  iui^i  lilSflivl 


The  Ambit  of  Eormenrerc.a's  Estate  in  Thanet. 


[/'../.  [II.,  facing  f:  226. 


APPENDIX  I  227 

monastery,  of  which  she  afterwards  became  Abbess,  and  where 
she  had  a  band  of  seventy  nuns.  She  was  consecrated  by  Arch- 
bishop Theodore  or,  as  Symeon  of  Durham  says,  by  Archbishop 
Deusdedit.  The  date  of  her  death  is  apparently  not  known, 
but  she  was  commemorated  on  13th  July.  Stubbs  speaks  of  the 
numerous  dedications  of  churches  to  St.  Mildred,  and  the  frequent 
use  of  her  name  as  a  baptismal  name.  Churches  dedicated  to 
her  exist  in  Bread  Street  and  in  the  Poultry  in  London,  and 
others  at  Preston,  Canterbury,  and  Whippingham.  There  was 
also  one  at  Oxford,  but  it  has  been  demolished.^  Of  this 
Dr.  Bright  says,  every  one  who  passes  up  Brasenose  Lane 
traverses  ground  belonging  of  old  to  a  church  named  after 
the  canonised  granddaughter  of  Penda,  and  three  columns  of 
its  crypt  remain  under  the  common  room  of  Lincoln  College. ^ 
She  is  mentioned  in  several  charters,  all  of  which  are,  I  believe, 
spurious.  In  the  De  Gestis  Regum^  which  has  passed  under  the 
name  of  Symeon,  a  story  is  told  of  her  that  one  day  when  she  was 
resting  and  had  fallen  asleep,  a  dove  came  down  and,  alighting 
on  her  head,  protected  her  from  the  attacks  of  evil  spirits.^ 

On  her  death  she  was  succeeded  as  Abbess  of  Minster  by 
Eadburga,  who,  according  to  Thorn,  was  her  mother's  sister. 

The  church  which  had  been  built  by  Eormenberga,  and  was 
dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  had  become  too  small  to  accommodate 
the  sisterhood,  so  she  built  a  larger  one  a  little  distance  away, 
which  she  dedicated  to  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  which  was 
consecrated  by  Archbishop  Cuthberht.^ 

To  this  church  St.  Mildred's  remains  were  translated.  In 
later  days  a  fierce  fight  took  place  between  the  monks  of  St. 
Augustine  and  the  canons  of  St.  Gregory,  both  of  Canterbury, 
in  regard  to  these  relics,  which  were  such  a  valuable  posses- 
sion. There  seems  little  doubt  that  the  claims  of  the  monks 
of  St.  Augustine's  were  supported  by  a  series  of  forgeries  and 
concocted  story.  According  to  the  latter.  Abbot  ^Istan,  with 
the  consent  of  King  Cnut,  who  was  passing  through  Kent  on  his 
way  to  Rome,  transferred  the  remains  of  the  saint  to  his  monas- 
tery of  Stv  Augustine,  where  he  placed  the  saint's  tomb  in  the  choir 
"  near  the  great  candlestick  called  Jesse."  ^  In  the  time  of  Abbot 
Wilfrid  the  younger,  it  was  transferred    to  the  porticus  of  St. 

^  Did.  of  Chr.  Biog.y  iii.  914.  Miss  Arnold-Forster  adds  others  at 
Ipswich,  Lee,  Nursted,  and  Tenterden. 

2  Op.  cit.  273.  3  Af.H.B.,  639. 

\Thomas  of  Elmham,  217.  ^  Thorn,  Twysden,  1910. 


2  28  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Augustine's  Church.  Thorn  claims  that  the  night  before  the 
translation,  a  monk  of  the  Abbey,  who  was  also  sacristan,  called 
Maurus,  saw  the  vision  of  a  virgin  in  a  nun's  dress,  which  informed 
him  that  she  was  St.  Mildred  and  was  going  to  be  translated  the  fol- 
lowing day,  and  quotes  this  as  conclusive  against  "  the  Gregorians." 
He  also  says  that  Abbot  Egelwine  had  carried  off  the  key  of 
^Istan's  shrine  to  Denmark  and  afterwards  returned  it  to  Abbot 
Scotland,  and  it  was  found  to  open  this  shrine.  No  one  recog- 
nised the  key  except  Godwyn  the  Dean,  who  had  been  present 
at  the  first  translation  by  ^Istan.  When  they  opened  the  chest 
or  coffin  {archd)  they  found  a  leaden  case,  and  inside  it  a  wooden 
one  much  decayed,  in  which  was  a  glittering  cloth  which  con- 
tained the  bones  and  arms  of  the  saint.  The  whole  were  now 
transferred  to  a  new  sarcophagus,  where  they  remained  till  the 
year  1262,  when  they  were  removed  to  a  fresh  one,  on  which  was 
inscribed : 

'*  Clauditur  hoc  saxo  Mildreda  sacerrima  virgo 
Cujus  nos  precibus  adjuvet  ipse  Deus." 

When  the  translation  took  place,  says  Thorn,  a  leaden  vessel 
with  a  leaden  label  was  found,  reading : 

"  Hoc  in  loculo  habetur  pulvis  Dei  dilectae  virginis  Mildredae, 
ossa  vero  ejus  in  tumba  ipsius  clausa  saxo  durissinio  requiescunt^^ 

At  her  tomb  daily  Mass  was  said  in  her  memory. 

We  can  hardly  doubt  that  the  whole  of  this  story  was  a 
concoction  of  the  monks  of  St.  Augustine's,  who  were  most  adept 
at  the  art.  Thorn  has  an  additional  story  illustrating  the 
methods  by  which  great  men  were  in  those  days  induced  to 
foster  monasteries.  He  says  that  when  King  Edward  i.  was 
once  crossing  the  sea  from  Flanders  a  terrible  storm  arose  and 
the  ship  was  driven  towards  Thanet.  The  king  saw  a  vision 
of  the  saint  surrounded  by  her  nuns  standing  on  the  shore  and 
impelling  the  waves  against  the  ship  with  her  abbess's  staff. 
When  the  king  appealed  to  her  she  replied  that  she  would 
comply  with  his  wish  if  he  would  restore  to  her  monastery  some 
of  the  possessions  of  which  it  had  been  deprived,  and  he  quotes 
the  document  by  which  the  king  presently  conveyed  the  lands 
in  question.2 

While  the  monks  of  St.  Augustine's  claimed  to  possess  the 
saint's  remains,  a  similar  claim,  as  I  have  said,  and  perhaps 
^  Thorn,  op,  cit.  1912-13.  ^  Qp^  ^^f^  5^52  and  1963. 


APPENDIX   I  229 

equally  dubious,  was  set  up  by  the  canons  of  St.  Gregory  at 
Canterbury.  According  to  their  story,  which  is  reported  by  a 
champion  of  the  other  side,  namely,  Thomas  of  Elmham,  the 
canons  urged  that  in  early  times  the  remains  of  St.  Mildred  had 
been  translated  to  Lyminge.  Thence  they  were  again  removed 
in  1085,  in  the  time  of  Archbishop  Lanfranc.  If  their  story  was 
as  Thomas  reports  it,  it  seems  clear  that  their  case  was  not  a 
very  strong  one.  A  famous  polemical  pamphlet  against  the 
canons  and  their  claims  was  written  by  Jocelyn,  the  monk  of 
St.  Augustine's,  which  was  entitled  Libellus  contra  manes  usicrpa- 
tores  Sanctae  Mildrithae.  Thomas  of  Elmham  also  makes  a 
good  fight  in  his  book  for  his  own  monastery. 

According  to  the  Acta  Sanctorum,  vol.  iii.  p.  514,  a  number 
of  her  relics  were  preserved  at  Deventer. 

Thomas  of  Elmham  further  reports  a  remarkable  saga  about 
St.  Mildred's  remains,  which  he  quotes  from  the  tract  on  the 
translation  of  her  relics.  He  says  that  in  the  time  of  William 
the  Conqueror  a  certain  knight  broke  into  a  barrack  {militis 
hospitio)  and  stole  the  greater  part  of  its  contents.  He  was 
captured  and  imprisoned  in  the  castle  of  Canterbury  and  put 
in  fetters.  On  the  vigil  of  the  saint,  stirred  by  the  sound  of  the 
bells  of  the  monastery  summoning  people  to  its  services,  he  had  a 
yearning  to  go  thither  himself.  He  found  his  chains  loosened, 
while  the  custodians  were  paralysed.  The  gates  of  the  castle 
were  opened,  and  he  fled  to  the  monastery,  the  gates  of  which 
were  closed,  but  was  able  to  creep  through  the  windows  of 
the  crypt,  nor  was  he  pursued.  He  thereupon  proceeded  to 
secure  some  portion  of  the  hair,  the  neck,  legs,  arms,  feet,  and 
of  the  vestments  and  girdle  of  the  virgin  to  whom  he  was 
devoted,  and  who  had  assisted  him  in  escaping  from  the  prison. 
The  sacristan,  hearing  a  noise  in  the  church,  collected  a  number 
of  people,  by  whom  the  runaway  was  recaptured.^ 

As  we  have  seen,  Mildred  was  succeeded  as  Abbess  by  her 
aunt  Eadburga,  who  is  reported  to  have  died  in  751.^ 

There  is  a  special  interest  about  Eadburga  from  the  fact 
that  she  was  one  of  the  correspondents  of  Archbishop  Boniface. 
The  first  of  his  letters  to  her  is  dated  about  717,  and  was 
apparently  written  by  him  before  he  left  England,  and  under 
his  early  name  of  Wynfrid.  In  it  he  sends  her  an  account, 
which  he  had  also  sent  to  Hildelitha,  the  Abbess  of  Barking, 
of  the  visions  of  the  monk  of  Wenlock  reported  in  a  later 
^  Thomas  of  Elmham,  224  and  225.  ^  lb.  220. 


2  30  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

page.^     He   ends   the   letter  gracefully  with   an  alliteration,  a 
mode  of  composition  then  in  fashion  : — 

**  Vale  ;  verae  virgo  vitae  ut  et  vivas  angelicae  ; 
Recto  rite  et  rumore  regnes  semper  in  aethere 
Christum."  2 

In  a  second  letter  written  to  Boniface  by  Leobgytha  in  732, 
then  a  nun  in  England,  who  went  to  Germany  in  737,  she  speaks 
of  Eadburga  as  an  accomplished  Latin  versifier.^  In  735  the 
Bishop  writes  her  a  letter,  in  which  he  thanks  her  for  having  sent 
a  present  of  books  "  to  the  exile  living  in  Germany,  which  would 
light  up  the  dark  recesses  of  the  German  race."  The  same  year 
he  again  writes  to  her  asking  her  to  copy  out  for  him  in  golden 
letters  the  Epistles  of  St.  Peter,  of  which  he  had  special  need.^ 
Some  time  between  742  and  746  he  again  writes  to  Eadburga 
telling  her  of  his  troubles  and  labours,  and  asking  for  her 
prayers  for  himself  and  the  pagans,  whom  he  had  been  charged 
to  rescue  from  idolatry.^  In  745-46  he  sends  her  a  further 
graceful  letter,  in  which  he  says  he  is  sending  her  some  small 
presents  {J)arva  mu7iuscula)^  including  a  silver  style  or  pen 
{graphium),  and  some  spices  {sforacis  et  cinnamonia),  and  tells 
her  that  if  she  needs  anything  else  which  he  could  send  her,  she 
must  inform  him  byhis  messenger Ceollaor otherwise.^  Leobgytha, 
one  of  his  pupils,  also  corresponded  with  Boniface,  as  we  have 
seen,  and  sent  him  specimens  of  her  verses,  which  she  claimed  to 
have  composed  "  according  to  the  rules  derived  from  the  poets, 
not  in  a  spirit  of  presumption  but  with  the  desire  of  exciting  her 
slender  talents  and  in  the  hope  of  his  assistance."  She  said  she 
had  learned  the  art  from  the  Abbess  Eadburga,  who  was  ever 
occupied  in  studying  the  divine  law.  The  following  four  hexa- 
meters conclude  a  poem  addressed  to  Boniface  by  Leobgytha, 
and  comprise  a  blessing  upon  him : 

"  Arbiter  omnipotens,  solus  qui  cuncta  creavit 
In  regno  patris  semper  qui  lumine  fulget, 
Qua  jugiter  flagrans  sic  regnat  gloria  Christi, 
Inlesum  servet  semper  te  jure  perenni." 
[Mon.  Germ.  Hist.,  Ep.  iii.  281  ;  Wright,  Bzog.  Briit.,  i.  32  and  33.) 

Let  US  now  turn  to  the  famous  Abbey  of  Barking,  in  Essex, 
founded  out  of  his  private  patrimony,  as  we  have  seen,  by 
Earconwald,  afterwards  Bishop  of  London,  as  a  monastery  for 

^  Ante,  vol.  ii.  379.  ^  Mon.  Germ.  Hist.,  Ep.  iii.  257. 

3  /(^.  281.  "»  lb.  285  and  286. 

5  lb.  333  and  334.  6  /^_  337  and  338. 


APPENDIX  I  231 

women,  and  over  which  he  put  his  sister  ^thelberga.^  Bede 
says  of  her:  "She  behaved' herself  in  all  respects  as  became  the 
sister  of  such  an  episcopal  brother,  living  rigorously  and  piously 
and  according  to  rule,  providing  for  those  under  her,  as  was 
manifested  by  heavenly  miracles."  2  I  have  elsewhere  described 
her  death  from  the  plague.  ^  Bede  says  that  when  she  was  ap- 
proaching her  end  a  wonderful  vision  appeared  to  one  of  the  sisters 
called  Torctgyd,  who  had  lived  many  years  in  the  monastery  and 
had  taught  the  young  people  there.  She  had,  however,  been 
stricken  with  a  serious  complaint,  from  which  she  suffered  for 
nine  years.  Bede  attributes  this  affliction  to  the  direct  action 
of  the  Redeemer,  who  desired  that  the  faults  she  had  committed, 
either  through  ignorance  or  neglect,  might  be  purged  in  this 
world.  One  morning  at  dawn,  as  she  left  the  house  she  saw  a 
vision  of  a  human  body,  more  effulgent  than  the  sun,  and  wrapped 
in  a  sheet,  being  lifted  up  and  carried  out  of  the  house.  It  was 
being  drawn  along  by  a  number  of  cords  brighter  than  gold,  and 
at  length  entered  the  open  heaven  and  passed  out  of  sight.  She 
interpreted  this  as  meaning  that  one  of  their  sisterhood  was 
about  to  die  and  to  go  to  heaven,  and,  in  fact,  a  few  days  later 
their  mother  ^thelburga  took  her  departure. 

Three  years  later  Torctgyd  had  become  so  ill  that  not  only 
were  all  her  limbs  paralysed  but  her  tongue  also.  She  again  saw  a 
vision  and  was  able  to  speak  to  it,  and  begged  that  the  delay  in 
summoning  her  to  another  place  might  not  be  prolonged  beyond 
the  next  night.  On  being  asked  whom  she  had  been  talking  to, 
she  replied  that  it  was  their  mother  ^thelburga.  They  under- 
stood this  to  mean  that  the  latter  had  come  to  summon  her.* 

Bede  tells  another  story  of  a  nun  who  was  much  afflicted  by 
illness,  and  so  disabled  that  she  could  not  move  a  limb.  Being 
informed  that  the  body  of  the  Abbess  was  being  carried  into  the 
church  preparatory  to  placing  it  in  the  tomb,  she  desired  to  be 
carried  thither  too,  and  to  be  placed  near  the  body  in  the  attitude 
of  one  praying,  whereupon  the  Abbess  spoke  to  her  as  if  she  had 
been  living,  and  she  begged  her  to  pray  for  her  that  she  might 
be  delivered  from  her  sickness,  which  occurred  twelve  days 
later,  when  she  died. 

Such  were  the  naive  and  simple  tales  which  brought  consolation 
and  comfort  to  the  much  believing  folk  of  the  eighth  century.  It  is 
necessary  for  those  who  study  the  period  to  take  note  of  them,  as 

^  Ante,  i.  426.  ^  Bede,  iv.  6. 

^  See  St.  Augustine  the  Missionary,  363-65.  *  Bede,  iv.  9. 


232   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

they  are  almost  the  only  information  we  have  about  the  way  people 
then  faced  the  greater  problems  that  still  embarrass  us  all. 

The  death-day  of  ^thelburga  in  the  calendar  is  nth 
October.  Florence  of  Worcester  says  she  died  in  676,  which 
Stubbs  says  is  very  doubtful.^  There  is  more  probability  that 
she  was  the  patron  saint  of  St.  yfi^thelburga's  church  in  London. 

Bede  tells  us  that  she  was  succeeded  as  Abbess  of  Barking 
by  a  certain  person.  He  does  not  say  who  she  was.  According 
to  the  legendary  Life  of  Earconwald,  she  was  a  foreign  lady 
invited  by  him  to  instruct  his  sister  in  her  monastic  duties,  from 
which,  says  Stubbs,  it  has  been  inferred  that  she  came  from 
Chelles.  Father  Haigh  suggests  that  she  perhaps  came 
from  Northumbria,  and  possibly  was  a  relative  of  St.  Hilda. 
This  he  infers  from  her  name  (Hildelitha).  Bede  says  she 
presided  over  the  monastery  at  Barking  till  she  was  of  great  age, 
and  did  so  in  a  most  exemplary  way.  On  account  of  the  small- 
ness  of  the  site,  she  determined  that  the  bodies  of  the  female 
and  male  servants  of  Christ  who  were  buried  in  it  should  be 
translated  into  the  Church  of  the  Blessed  Mother  of  God  and 
there  interred.  Bede  says  that  in  the  book  from  which  he 
gathered  these  facts  it  was  reported  that  a  heavenly  light  was  often 
seen  there  and  a  sweet  fragrance  proceeded  thence,  as  well  as 
other  miracles.  Of  these  he  mentions  one.  The  wife  of  a 
certain  nobleman  who  lived  close  by  was  seized  with  dimness 
in  her  eyes,  which  became  so  bad  that  she  could  not  see.  She 
therefore  had  herself  carried  into  the  cemetery  and  prayed 
for  help  at  the  grave  of  the  saint.  Almost  immediately 
she  recovered  her  sight  and  was  able  to  return  home  without 
assistance.2 

The  fame  of  Abbess  Hildelitha  must  have  been  very  great, 
for,  as  we  have  seen,  St.  Aldhelm  dedicated  to  her  and  other 
sisters  of  her  house  his  famous  work  entitled  De  laudibus 
Virginitatis  (which  I  have  described  in  an  earlier  page).  In 
the  preface  to  this  he  apostrophises  her  as  Hildelitha  regularis 
disciplinae  et  mo7tasticae  conversationis  magistra.  The  other  nuns 
of  the  abbey  whom  he  mentions  were  Justina  and  Cuthburga, 
Osburga,  Aldgida  and  Scholastica,  Hedburga  and  Burrigida, 
Eulalia  and  Tecla — some  of  which  are  actual  names  and  others 
adopted  names  in  religion.  In  the  concluding  sentence  of  his 
work  he  apostrophises  them  thus  :    Valete^  fiores  ecclesiae  sorores 

^  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.^  ii.  219. 
2  Bede,  iv.  10. 


APPENDIX   I  233 

monasticae,  alumnae  scholasticae  Christi  7?iargaritae,  paradisi 
gemmae  et  coelestis  patriae  participes}- 

To  the  poetical  edition  of  this  work  Aldhelm  prefixes  a 
preface  forming  a  double  acrostic,  addressed  not  to  Hildelitha 
by  name  but  "  ad  maximan  Abbatissam."  2  As  Aldhelm  died 
in  709,  this  poem  must  have  been  written  before  that  year. 

In  717  or  718  she  is  mentioned  in  a  letter  written  by  St. 
Boniface  to  Eadburga,  the  Abbess  of  Minster  in  Thanet, 
enclosing  an  account  of  the  visions  of  a  Wenlock  monk, 
which  he  says  he  had  already  sent  to  the  Venerable  Abbess 
Hildelitha.^  Her  death-day  is  given  in  the  calendar  as  the  24th 
of  March  ;  the  year  is  uncertain.  Cuthburga,  the  first  abbess 
of  Wimborne,  was  one  of  her  pupils  and  is  one  of  the  nuns 
mentioned,  as  I  have  said,  in  Aldhelm's  tract  in  praise  of  virginity. 

The  successor  of  Hildelitha  at  Barking  is  not  specifically 
mentioned.  I  venture  to  make  a  suggestion  in  regard  to  her. 
Among  the  nuns  mentioned  by  Aldhelm  in  the  work  last  named 
as  being  under  Hildelitha,  one  is  called  Hidburga.  I  think  it 
probable,  for  more  than  one  reason,  that  she  was  the  Heaburg 
mentioned  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Boniface.*  This  letter  was 
written  by  a  certain  Eangyth,  who  styles  herself  indigna  ancilla 
ancillaru?n  Dei  et  no??iine  abbatissae  sine  merito  Juncta,  and  her 
only  daughter  Heaburg,  styled  Bugga  {cog?io?netito  Buggae).^ 
This  latter  uncommon  name  suggests  that  she  was  the  same 
Bugga  who  was  the  sister  of  Aldhelm  and  daughter  of  Kentwine, 
King  of  Wessex,  who  built  the  famous  basilica  upon  which 
Aldhelm  wrote  a  poem.  In  that  case  Eangyth  was  the  widow 
of  King  Kentwine.  This  conclusion  falls  in  very  well  with  the 
contents  of  the  letter  above  named  written  to  Boniface,  and 
with  the  fact  that  both  Boniface  and  Aldhelm  were  on  such 
terms  of  close  friendship  with  Abbess  Hildelitha.  If  the  con- 
clusion be  right,  it  enables  us  to  say  that  the  Abbess  Hildelitha 
was  dead  when  the  letter  was  written,  i.e.  circ.  719-722. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  letter.  The  use  in  it  of  Bugga  as  a 
surname  is  illustrated  by  another  phrase  in  which  Eangyth  speaks 
of  a  certain  Wale  (which  looks  like  a  similar  pet  name)  as  formerly 
her  abbess  and  spiritual  mother.  This  may  have  been  a  pet  name 
of  Hildelitha.  She  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  poverty  and  scanty 
supply  of  worldly  things  in  her  rural  home  {paupertas  et  pe?iuria 
verum  temporaliiim  et  augustia  cespitis  ruris  nostri)  and  of  the 

^Aldhelm,  op.  cit.  ;  Giles,  1-82.  ^  73    j^^ 

3  Mon.  Germ.  HisL,  Ep.  iii.  252.  ■*  lb.  260.  *  lb.  261. 


234  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CLIURCH 

hostility  of  the  King  {infestatio  regalts),  caused  by  the  accusations 
of  those  who  were  envious  of  her,  added  to  which  was  the  loss 
of  a  crowd  of  friends  and  relatives.  "  We  have  neither  son  nor 
brother,  father  nor  uncle,"  she  says,  "and  only  one  daughter, 
entirely  bereft  of  all  dear  to  her  in  this  world  except  an  only 
sister,  a  very  aged  mother,  and  a  son  of  their  brother,  and  he, 
without  any  fault  of  his  own,  is  afflicted  with  mental  weakness 
{i7ifilicem  propter  ipsius  mentis)^  and  meanwhile  the  King  hates 
our  family  exceedingly." 

This  letter,  while  a  querulous  document,  is  a  very  interesting 
one,  and  discloses  the  manifold  troubles  of  an  abbess  (who  was 
probably  not  very  tactful  and  worldly-wise)  in  her  efforts  to 
manage  her  establishment.  It  was  a  double  monastery 
{promiscui  sexus  et  aetatis),  and  she  had  the  duty  of  keeping 
the  peace  among  a  crowd  of  people  differing  in  temperament 
and  in  mental  equipment  and  varying  in  age  and  sex,  and  was 
held  responsible  not  only  for  their  overt  words  and  actions  but 
for  their  secret  thoughts. 

"  God  has  removed  from  me,"  she  says,  "  in  various  ways  those 
who  might  have  been  useful  to  me.  Some  are  dead  and  buried 
at  home — God  knows  how  many — others  have  forsaken  their  native 
land  and  sought  shelter  at  the  shrine  of  the  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul.  I  myself,"  she  adds,  "  was  also  anxious  to  go  thither 
across  the  sea,  and  asked  for  counsel  from  my  spiritual  brother 
Boniface,  especially  as  I  was  getting  old,  and  many  dissuaded 
me  from  going,  on  the  ground  that  I  ought  to  stay  and  do  my 
duty  where  I  had  been  put  by  Providence." 

The  letter  closes  with  a  request  to  Boniface  to  show  kindness 
to  Denewald  (whom  she  designates  as  ilium  fratr em  necessarium^ 
amicum  nostrum^  whether  a  real  or  only  a  spiritual  brother  I 
don't  know)  if  he  should  come  into  the  parts  where  he  lived  \ 
she  also  sends  a  friendly  message  to  the  priest  Berther.^ 

The  letter  also  affords  good  evidence  of  the  mastery  of  Latin 
possessed  by  English  nuns  at  this  time.  One  sentence  will  suffice 
as  a  sample.  Speaking  of  the  relatives  who  had  gone  away  and  left 
her  so  lonely,  she  says  :  "  Alii  obierunt  in  patrio  solo  ;  et  corpora 
eorum  in  terrae pulvere  sqiialente  requiescunt,  iterum  resurrectura  in 
die  necessitatis^  quando  herilis  tuba  concrepat  et  omne  humanum  genus 
atris  tumbis  emergent,  rationem  redditura,  et  spiritus  eorum  angelicis 
ulnis  evecti  regnaturi  cum  Christo  ;  ubi  omnis  dolor  deficiet  et  invidia 
fatescit  et  fugiet  dolor  et  gemitns  a  facie  sanctoru7n,"  etc.  etc. 

^  Op.  cii,  261-263. 


APPENDIX  I  235 

The  quality  of  the  Latin  in  the  letter  is  coupled  with  a  proof 
of  considerable  reading,  as  instanced  by  quotations  from  Jerome, 
Isidore,  and  Aldhelm. 

We  still  have  left  for  description  a  nunnery  in  Western 
England  which  was  famous  as  a  mother  of  missionaries  and  for 
other  reasons.  This  was  Wimborne  (Winborna).  It  was  founded 
by  Cuthburga,  the  sister  of  King  Ini,  whom  we  have  already 
named  among  the  Barking  sisters  under  Abbess  Hildelitha.  She 
had  been  the  wife  of  Aldfrid,  King  of  Northumbria,  from  whom 
she  separated  ("during  his  Hfetime,"  ^.-i5'.  Chron.^  7^8),  as  other 
royal  queens  had  done,  under  pressure  of  quite  false  ascetic 
notions.  Florence  of  Worcester  says  she  did  so  for  the  love  of 
God  ^pyo  amore  Dei). 

She  founded  a  nunnery  at  Wimborne  near  the  river  of  the  same 
name  (called  Wenturnia  by  Aldhelm)  before  the  year  705,  as  it  is 
mentioned  in  a  document  dated  in  that  year  by  Aldhelm.  He 
tells  us  it  was  then  presided  over  by  Cuthburga,  whom  he  calls 
Regis  nostrigermana  Cuthburga^  thus  making  her  the  sister  of  King 
Ida,  as  she  is  also  made  by  the  compiler  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle  and  by  Florence  of  Worcester,  sub  an,  718.  These 
authorities  tell  us  she  was  the  sister  of  Cuenburga  or  Quen- 
burga,  who  is  called  the  co-foundress  of  Wimborne  by  John 
of  Tynemouth  in  his  Historia  Aurea.  According  to  the 
Life  of  St.  Leobgytha  or  Leoba  there  were  500  nuns  at 
Wimborne.  We  are  not  told  the  year  when  Cuthburga  died, 
but  her  death-day  was  observed  on  August  31st.  Her  bio- 
graphy is  entered  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum  in  August  (vol.  vi. 
696). 

She  was  apparently  succeeded  as  Abbess  of  Wimborne 
by  her  sister  Cuenburga.  She  is  probably  the  same  who  is 
mentioned  in  an  interesting  document  preserved  among  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Boniface  (which  was  written  sometime  in  729-744),^ 
in  which  she  is  called  Cneuberga.  This  document  is  the  first 
recorded  instance,  say  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  of  an  association  of 
confraternity  between  distant  houses  for  mutual  prayer,  of  which 
some  important  examples  occur  in  later  times.  It  is  a  kind  of 
missive  or  letter  addressed  by  Abbot  Aldhun,  Cneuburga  a  nun 
{Christi famulae)^  doubtless  Cuenburga,  and  Coenburg  the  Abbess 
(?  a  corruption  of  Cuthburga),  to  the  Abbots  Coengils  and  Ingeld,^ 

^  Mon.  Gerffi.  Hist.,  Ep.  iii.  309. 

^  The  third  abbot  of  Glastonbury  so  named,  who,  in  Malmesbury's  list 
is  put  in  729-743  (Ant.  Glas.,  ed.  Gale,  313  and  328). 


2  36  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

and  the  priest  Wiehtberht^  their  relative  {cognatus).  Abbot  Ingeld's 
monastery  is  not  mentioned,  but  he  is  named  in  a  letter  addressed 
by  Wiehtberht  to  the  monks  of  Glastonbury,  and  may  be  the  Ingeld 
named  as  the  brother  of  King  Ini,  and  his  sisters  Cuthburga  and 
Cuenburga.  In  the  letter  Aldhun  and  the  nuns  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  certain  presents  from  their  correspondents  ;  Cneuberga 
then  proceeds  to  communicate  the  names  of  her  dead  sisters  to  the 
two  abbots  and  Wiehtberht,  apparently  with  the  intention  of 
securing  their  prayers.  The  first  of  them,  she  says,  was  her  sister 
Queongy th  {soror  mea  ger7na?ia),  and  the  second  Edlu,  who,  when 
alive,  was  mother  of  Etan,  a  relative  {propinqua)  of  Aldhun,  once 
Wiehtberht's  abbot.  Both  of  them  were  commemorated  on  the 
same  day,  namely,  the  ides  of  September :  the  nuns  also  asked  for 
the  prayers  of  their  correspondents  for  themselves.  Haddan  and 
Stubbs  (iii.  343)  suggest  that  Etan  or  Eto  was  the  same  person  as 
Tetta,^  which  seems  almost  certain.  Mabillon  makes  Aldhun 
abbot  of  Wimborne,  of  which  there  is  no  proof.  An  abbot  of  the 
name  presided  over  St.  Augustine's,  Canterbury,  from  748-760.^ 
Cuthburga  and  Cuenburga  were  both  buried  at  Wimborne.  A  third 
sister  named  Tetta,  above  named,  was  also  Abbess  there,  and 
presided  over  the  sisters  while  St.  Leoba  was  in  residence  there. 
We  learn  from  the  interesting  Life  of  the  latter  Saint  that 
the  convent  was  not  a  very  happy  family.  In  it  Tetta  is 
called  the  sister  of  the  King  {i.e.  of  King  Ini).  Montalembert 
has  picturesquely  translated  some  phrases  from  this  Life.  He 
says  :  "Among  the  crowd  of  minor  authorities  who  lent  their  aid 
to  this  zealous  and  pious  abbess  was  the  provost  {preposita),  the 
deaconess  {decand) ;  the  porteress  whose  business  it  was  to  close 
the  church  after  compline,  and  to  ring  the  bell  for  matins,  and 
who  was  furnished  with  an  immense  collection  of  keys,  some  of 
silver,  others  of  copper  or  iron."  *  "  But  neither  the  rank  nor 
moral  influence  of  the  princess  Abbess  was  always  successful  in 
restraining  the  barbarous  impetuosity  of  the  monastic  youth. 
Thus  at  one  time  the  nun  who  held  the  first  rank  after  the 
Abbess,  and  who  was  principally  occupied  with  the  care  of  the 
novices,  made  herself  odious  by  her  extreme  severity.  When  she 
died,  the  hate  which  she  inspired  burst  forth  without  pity  \  she 
was  no  sooner  buried  than  the  novices  and  young  nuns  began 
to  jump  and  dance  upon  her  tomb,  as  if  to  tread  under  foot 

^  He  was  afterwards  one  of  Boniface's  missionaries  to  the  Hessians  and  Saxons 
{Mon.  Germ.  HisL,  Ep.  iii.  289,  and  note  i).     He  became  Abbot  of  Fritzlar. 
2  Vide  below.         ^  See  Elmham,  317  and  318.  "*  Vii.  S.  Leob.,  c.  v. 


APPENDIX   1  237 

her  detested  corpse.  This  went  so  far  that  the  soil,  freshly  filled 
in,  which  covered  the  remains  of  their  enemy,  sank  half  a  foot 
below  the  level  of  the  surrounding  ground.  The  Abbess  had 
great  trouble  to  make  them  feel  what  she  called  the  hardness 
and  cruelty  of  their  hearts,  and  imposed  on  them  three  days 
of  fasting,  and  prayers  for  the  deceased."  ^ 

Leoba  was  the  pet  name  of  the  nun  whose  life  I  have  been 
quoting  from.  Her  full  name  was  Leobgytha  and  she  was 
apparently  also  called  Trythgifu.^  While  still  at  Wimborne  she 
wrote  a  letter  to  Boniface.  This  was  addressed  to  the  Very 
Reverend  Lord  and  Bishop  Boniface,  beloved  in  Christ,  by  his 
kinswoman  Leobgytha,  the  humblest  of  the  servants  of  God,  health 
and  eternal  salvation.  "  I  pray  your  clemency  to  remember  the 
friendship  which  united  you  to  my  father  Dynne,  a  native  of 
Wessex,  who  died  eight  years  ago,  that  you  may  pray  for  the 
repose  of  his  soul.  I  also  commend  to  you  my  mother  Ebba, 
your  kinswoman  (as  you  know  better  than  me),  who  still  lives  in 
great  suffering  and  has  long  been  overwhelmed  with  her  in- 
firmities. I  am  their  only  daughter ;  and  God  grant,  unworthy 
as  I  am,  that  I  may  have  the  honour  of  having  you  for  my 
brother,  for  no  man  of  our  kindred  inspires  me  with  the  same 
confidence  as  you  do.  I  have  sent  you  a  little  present,  not  that 
I  think  it  worthy  your  attention,  but  that  you  may  remember  my 
humbleness  and  that,  notwithstanding  the  distance  apart  of  our 
dwellings,  the  tie  of  true  love  may  unite  us  for  the  rest  of  our  days. 
Excellent  brother,  what  I  ask  you  with  earnestness  is,  that  the 
buckler  of  your  prayers  may  defend  me  from  the  poisoned 
arrows  of  the  enemy.  I  beg  you  also  to  excuse  the  rusticity  of 
this  letter,  and  that  your  courtesy  will  not  refuse  the  few  words 
of  answer  which  I  so  much  desire.  You  will  find  below  some 
lines  which  I  have  attempted  to  compose  according  to  the  rules 
of  poetic  art,  not  from  self-confidence,  but  to  exercise  the  mind 
which  God  has  given  me,  and  to  ask  your  counsel.  I  have 
learnt  all  that  I  know  from  Eadburga  my  mistress  {i.e,  the 
mistress  of  the  novices),  who  gives  herself  to  the  study  of  the 
divine  law.  Farewell.  May  you  live  a  long  and  happy  life, 
and  intercede  for  me." 

The  verses  referred  to  in  this  letter  I  have  quoted  on  page  230. 

After  her  mother's  death  Leobgytha  joined  Boniface  in 
Germany,  who  appointed  her  Abbess  of  Biscopsheim. 

^  Vit.  S.  Leob.,  ch.  iii.  ;  Montalembert,  op.  cit.  v.  295. 
^  Sttjoum.  Yorks.  Archaol.  and  Topog.  Soc,^  iii.  368. 


APPENDIX    II 

ARCHBISHOP  THEODORE'S  PENITENTIAL 

I  HAVE  described  this  document  and  its  contents  at  some  length 
in  the  Introduction,  and  in  an  earlier  chapter,  and  shown  how 
valuable  and  important  it  is,  not  only  for  English  ecclesiastical 
history  but  for  that  of  Western  Christendom,  being,  with  one 
exception,  referred  to  in  it  as  the  Libellus  Scotoru7n^  the  earliest 
example  of  a  Penitential  extant.  I  have  thought  it  would  be 
useful  and  welcome  to  other  students  to  give  it  at  length  for 
the  first  time  in  translation,  excluding  only  those  parts  of  it 
which  deal  with  unclean  topics. 

I  may  say  that  the  text  of  the  document  is  in  several  places 
very  ambiguous  and  doubtful :  I  have  taken  it  from  Haddan 
and  Stubbs,  iii.  177-21 1.  I  have  to  thank  my  friends  Mr. 
Mattingley  and  Mr.  Hardinge-Tyler  for  help  in  clearing  up 
some  doubtful  passages,  but  others  remain  in  which  the  sense 
is  by  no  means  clear  to  me. 

The  First  Book 

The  first  chapter  of  the  first  book  is  headed  "  De  crapula  et 
ebrietate." 

1.  If  a  bishop  or  other  ordained  person  is  habitually  drunk 
he  must  give  the  practice  up  or  be  deposed. 

2.  If  a  monk  is  so  drunk  that  he  is  sick  {vomitum  facit),  let 
him  do  penance  for  thirty  days. 

3.  In  the  case  of  a  priest  or  deacon  this  penalty  is  extended 
to  forty  days. 

4.  If,  however,  he  has  been  a  very  abstemious  man,  or  is 

delicate,  or  has  been  without  food  for  some  time,  and  has  thus 

accidentally    succumbed    from    either    drinking   or    eating   too 

much  ;  or  if  through  joy  at  Christ's  birth,  or  at  Easter,  or  at  the 

commemoration  of  some  saint  he  should  give  way,  notwithstand- 

*  See  Introduction,  p.  cxvii. 
338 


APPENDIX   II  239 

ing  that  he  had  not  drunk  more  than  was  permitted  him  by  the 
seniors,  no  offence  is  committed.  If  it  was  by  command  of  the 
Bishop  that  he  drank,  then,  again,  it  is  no  offence,  unless  the 
Bishop  has  also  done  it  {nisi  ipse  similiter  faciat). 

5.  If  a  faithful  layman  is  sick  from  drink  he  is  to  do  fifteen 
days'  penance. 

6.  Any  one,  however,  who  becomes  drunk  "against  the  Lord's 
command  "  (if  he  is  under  a  vow  of  sanctity)  is  to  be  limited  to 
bread  and  water  for  seven  days  and  to  be  seventy  days  without 
butter  or  fat.  Laymen  are  similarly  to  abstain  from  beer  as  a 
penance. 

7.  If  a  man  through  wickedness  causes  another  to  become 
drunk  he  is  to  do  penance  for  forty  days. 

8.  He  who  becomes  sick  through  intemperance  is  to  do 
three  days'  penance. 

9.  If  he  do  this  at  Communion  he  is  to  do  seven  days' 
penance ;  if  it  is  due  to  infirmity,  however,  there  is  no  offence. 

The  second  chapter  of  the  first  book  is  headed  "Z?^ 
fornicationey 

It  contains  twenty-two  clauses,  all  of  which  deal  with  the 
relations  of  the  sexes  or  unnatural  crimes,  to  each  of  which 
special  forms  and  degrees  of  penance  are  assigned.  The 
minuteness  of  the  classification  and  the  details  are  incredibly 
offensive  in  a  document  professedly  compiled  from  the  decisions 
of  an  archbishop. 

Bishop  Stubbs,  in  dealing  with  the  matter,  offers  some 
apologies  which  explain  if  they  do  not  justify  it.  He  says  of 
the  Penitential  that  "  Like  all  works  of  a  disciplinary  character, 
it  contains  much  that  is  repulsive  and  redolent  of  heathen  and 
other  abominations,  against  which  early  Christian  teaching  had 
to  contend.  Painful  and  disgusting  as  it  is,  it  shows  the  Church 
attempting  to  struggle  against  the  moral  and  social  evils  which 
the  Roman  satirists  and  epigrammatists  regarded  either  as  matters 
of  jest  or  matters  of  course,  and  it  was  certainly  never  meant  for 
common  reading."  ^ 

The  third  chapter  is  headed  "  De  avaritia." 

I.  If  a  layman  carries  off  a  monk  from  a  monastery  by 
stealth,  he  must  either  himself  enter  a  monastery  to  serve  God,  or 
subject  himself  to  human  servitude. 

^  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.,  iv.  932. 


240  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

2.  Money  if  stolen  from  a  church  is  to  be  returned  fourfold ; 
if  from  laymen,  twofold. 

3.  He  who  has  often  committed  theft  is  to  suffer  a  penance 
of  seven  years,  or  such  time  as  shall  be  deemed  right  by  the 
ecclesiastic  {sacerdos)  who  tries  him — that  is  to  say,  what  is  deemed 
a  punishment  equivalent  to  the  offence.  A  thief  who  is  truly 
penitent  ought  always  to  make  due  restitution,  and  thereupon  he 
should  have  the  length  of  his  penance  reduced.  If  he  is  un- 
willing or  incapable  of  doing  this,  the  full  length  of  the  penance 
is  to  be  exacted. 

4.  He  who  informs  against  the  thief  is  to  give  one-third  to 
the  poor ;  and  he  who  hoards  up  his  superfluity  is  also  to  give 
a  third  to  the  poor  on  account  of  his  ignorance. 

5.  A  thief  who  steals  consecrated  things  is  to  do  three  years* 
penance,  with  the  plainest  food  (without  fat),  and  afterwards  to 
communicate. 

The  fourth  chapter  is  headed  "Z)<?  occissione hominum" 

1.  If  any  one  in  revenge  for  a  relative  kills  a  man,  he  is  to  do 
penance,  as  in  the  case  of  homicide,  for  seven  or  ten  years.  If, 
however,  he  is  wiUing  to  pay  the  relatives  the  recognised  blood- 
penalty  the  penance  is  to  be  reduced  by  one-half. 

2.  He  who  kills  a  man  to  revenge  a  brother  is  to  do  three 
years'  penance.  In  other  cases  it  is  to  be  ten  years  {In  alio 
loco  X.  annos  dicitur  pe?iitere). 

3.  In  the  case  of  homicide  it  is  to  be  ten  or  eleven  years. 

4.  If  a  layman  kills  another  after  brooding  over  it  {odu 
meditatione),  if  he  does  not  wish  to  give  up  his  arms  {i.e.  to  lose 
his  social  rank),  he  must  do  penance  for  seven  years,  and  for 
three  of  them  to  be  without  flesh  or  wine. 

5.  If  any  one  kills  a  monk,  he  must  "  give  up  his  arms  "  and 
"serve  God,"  or  suffer  seven  years'  penance.  The  Bishop  is  to 
be  the  judge  ;  in  case  the  victim  is  a  bishop  or  a  priest,  the  King 
is  to  be  the  judge. 

6.  If  a  man  kills  another  by  order  of  his  lord,  he  is  to 
abstain  from  church  for  forty  days,  and  if  he  kills  one  in  public 
war  {publico  bello),  he  is  to  do  forty  days'  penance. 

7.  If  through  anger,  three  years;  if  by  accident,  one  year; 
if  when  drunk  or  by  a  stratagem,  four  years  or  more ;  if  in  a 
brawl,  ten  years. 

The  fifth  chapter  is  headed  "  De  his  qui  per  heresim  deci- 
piuntur." 


APPENDIX  II  241 

1.  If  any  one  is  ordained  by  a  heretic,  he  ought,  if  it  was 
done  in  ignorance,  to  be  reordained ;  if  knowingly,  he  must  be 
deposed. 

2.  If  any  one  abandons  the  Catholic  Church  and  becomes  a 
heretic,  and  afterwards  returns,  he  cannot  be  reordained  until 
after  a  long  interval  {post  iongam  abstinentiam)  or  for  some  great 
necessity.  Pope  Innocent  did  not  allow  a  clerk  (clericus)  to 
reinstate  himself  by  penance  as  the  canon  provided  {catwfium 
auctoritate).  Therefore  it  is  that  Theodore  adds  "  unless  great 
necessity  should  arise,"  for  he  declared  that  he  would  never 
change  the  decrees  of  the  Roman  See  {nunquam  Romanorum 
deer  eta  mutari). 

3.  If  any  one  does  not  accept  the  Nicene  Council,  and  cele- 
brates Easter  with  the  Jews  on  the  fourteenth  day,  he  is  to  be 
entirely  excluded  from  the  Church  unless  he  repents  before 
his  death. 

4.  If  any  one  joins  in  prayer  with  such  a  one,  as  if  he  were 
a  Catholic  cleric,  he  must  do  penance  for  seven  days ;  if  he 
neglects  this,  he  must,  on  the  first  breach,  do  penance  for  forty 
days. 

5.  If  any  one  encourages  heresy  and  does  not  want  to  do 
penance  for  it,  he  is  to  be  excluded  from  the  Church ;  as  the 
Lord  says,  "  He  who  is  not  for  Me  is  against  Me." 

6.  If  any  one  is  baptized  by  a  heretic  who  does  not  rightly 
hold  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  he  is  to  be  again  baptized. 

7.  If  any  one  gives  the  Communion  to  or  receives  it  from  a 
heretic,  in  ignorance  that  this  is  forbidden  by  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  afterwards  learns  of  it,  he  is  to  do  penance  for  a  year.  If 
he  know,  but  neglects  the  rule,  and  afterwards  wishes  to  do 
penance,  let  him  do  it  for  ten  years.  "  Others,"  says  the  reporter, 
"  say  seven  years  \  and  those,  again,  who  are  more  lenient, 
say  five." 

8.  If  any  one  permits  a  heretic  to  say  Mass  in  a  Catholic 
church,  in  ignorance,  he  is  to  do  forty  days'  penance  ;  if  it  is 
done  out  of  regard  for  the  heretic,  then  for  a  whole  year. 

9.  If  he  has  done  it  to  do  harm  to  the  Catholic  Church 
and  to  the  custom  of  the  Romans  {et  consuetudifie  Romanoruni)^ 
he  should  be  cast  out  like  a  heretic  unless  he  is  willing  to  do 
penance,  when  he  must  practise  for  ten  years. 

10.  If  any  one  leaves  the  Catholic  Church  and  joins  an 
heretical  congregation,  and  persuades  others  to  do  so,  and  after- 
wards desires  to  do  penance,  let  him  do  it  for  twelve  years,  four 

VOL.  III.  — 16 


242   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

years  outside  the  Church  and  six  among  the  congregation 
{auditores)^  and  then  two  more  years  without  Communion.  In 
connection  with  this,  it  is  said  by  the  Synod,  "  in  the  tenth  year 
let  them  receive  their  Communion  or  oblation." 

11.  If  a  bishop  or  an  abbot  orders  a  monk  to  chant  a  Mass 
for  dead  heretics,  it  is  neither  right  nor  expedient  to  obey. 

12.  If  a  priest  be  present  at  a  Mass  for  the  dead  where  the 
names  of  heretics  and  cathoHcs  are  recited  together,  he  is  after 
the  Mass  to  do  penance  for  a  week  :  if  he  has  done  it  frequently, 
he  is  to  do  a  year's  penance. 

13.  If  some  one,  however,  order  a  Mass  for  the  death  of  a 
heretic  and  preserves  relics  of  him  on  account  of  his  goodness 
{pro  religione) ;  although  he  failed  much,  if  it  was  in  ignorance  of 
the  deference  due  to  the  Catholic  Church,  and  if  he  afterwards 
confessed  it  and  desired  to  do  penance,  the  relics  should  be 
burnt  and  penance  should  be  done  by  the  offender  for  a  year. 
If  he  knew  and  yet  disregarded  the  rule  in  such  a  case,  yet  was 
afterwards  moved  by  penitence,  he  is  to  do  penance  for  ten 
years. 

14.  If  any  one  abandon  the  Faith  without  any  necessity,  and 
afterwards  does  penance  with  his  whole  heart  in  public  {infer 
audiences),  in  accordance  with  the  rule  laid  down  by  the  Nicene 
Council,  he  shall  do  penance — three  years  outside  the  Church, 
seven  in  the  Church,  and  ten  more  without  Communion. 

The  sixth  chapter  is  headed  "  £>e  perjurio." 

1.  He  who  commits  perjury  in  a  church  is  to  suffer  a  year's 
penance. 

2.  If  he  do  it  under  durance,  then  for  three  Lents. 

3.  To  swear  "  in  the  hand  of  a  layman  "  is  not  treated  among 
the  Greeks  as  of  any  consequence. 

4.  If,  however,  one  swear  in  the  hands  of  a  bishop,  priest,  or 
deacon,  or  on  an  altar  or  a  consecrated  cross,  and  then  breaks 
his  oath,  he  is  to  suffer  three  years'  penance ;  if  on  a  non- 
consecrated  cross,  only  one. 

5.  Those  who  commit  perjury  are  to  suffer  three  years' 
penance. 

The  seventh  chapter  is  headed  "  JDe  mulfi's  vel  diversis  malts 
et  quae  non  nocent  necessarian 

I.  Any  one  who  has  committed  certain  crimes,  such  as 
homicide,  adultery,  unnatural  offences  with  cattle,  or  theft,  must 
enter  a  monastery,  and  do  penance  till  his  death. 


APPENDIX  II  243 

2.  In  regard  to  money  captured  in  a  foreign  province  from 
a  defeated  enemy,  as  from  a  king  who  has  been  beaten,  one- 
third  of  it  is  to  be  given  to  the  Church  or  the  poor,  while  the 
captor  is  to  suffer  forty  days'  penance,  since  it  was  done  by  order 
of  the  king  {quia  jussio  regis  erat),  (I  do  not  quite  understand 
this  clause.) 

3.  This  clause  I  prefer  not  to  print. 

4.  Evil  thoughts  which  do  not  culminate  in  actions  are  not 
subject  to  punishment. 

5.  Theodore  approved  of  twelve  three-day  fasts  {triduaiia  pro 
anno  pensandd)  annually.  From  sick  people,  from  a  male  or  a 
female  servant  for  a  year,  or  in  default  the  payment  of  half  of 
all  he  owns,  as  Christ  laid  down,  and  if  he  committed  a  fraud  he 
should  restore  fourfold.^  "  These  regulations,"  adds  the  reporter, 
"  are  taken,  as  we  said  in  the  Preface,  from  the  small  book  of  the 
Scots  {de  libello  Scotoru?n\  in  which  and  in  the  rest  {in  ceteris) 
the  penalty  is  sometimes  heavier  and  sometimes  lighter." 

6.  He  who  eats  unclean  food  or  the  flesh  of  a  dead  animal 
which  has  been  torn  by  wild  beasts  is  to  suffer  forty  days' 
penance,  unless  compelled  by  famine,  when  it  is  allowable,  since 
it  is  done  under  compulsion. 

7.  If  any  one  by  chance  touch  food  with  his  hand  which  a 
dog  or  the  skin  of  a  mouse,  or  any  unclean  animal  which  eats 
blood  has  touched,  it  is  not  an  offence,  nor  is  it  wrong  to  eat  an 
animal,  either  bird  or  beast  (which  seems  unclean),  from  necessity. 

8.  If  a  mouse  falls  into  a  liquid  it  is  to  be  taken  thence  and 
the  liquid  asperged  with  holy  water.  If  the  mouse  is  still  alive, 
the  liquor  may  be  drunk ;  if,  however,  it  is  dead,  all  the  liquor 
is  to  be  thrown  out  and  not  given  to  any  one,  while  the  vessel  is 
to  be  washed. 

9.  If,  however,  the  liquid  into  which  a  mouse  or  a  weasel 
{mustela)  falls  and  dies,  is  in  considerable  quantity,  it  may  be 
purged  and  asperged  with  holy  water  and  afterwards  consumed 
if  necessity  arises. 

10.  If  birds  drop  excrement  into  water,  the  excrement  is  to 
be  removed,  the  liquid  sanctified,  when  the  food  shall  be  deemed 
clean. 

11.  It  is  not  wrong  to  absorb  blood  unknowingly  with  saliva. 

12.  If  any  one  is  unwittingly  polluted  by  eating  blood  or 
anything  else  unclean,  he  does  no  wrong ;  if  knowingly,  he  must 
do  penance  as  in  the  case  of  pollution. 

^  This  clause  is  most  obscure  in  the  original. 


244  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Chapter  viii.  is  headed  "  De  diverso  lapso  servorum  DeiP 
Of  the   clauses   in    this  chapter  eleven   deal  with  unclean 

and    carnal   matters   and    their   punishments.      These   we    will 

pass  by. 

12.  In  reference  to  those  who  having  been  laymen  have 
become  monks  and  have  again  resumed  their  secular  habit,  if 
willing  to  suffer  penance,  they  are  to  be  punished  with  ten  years' 
penance ;  after  three  years,  if  duly  penitent  with  tears  and  prayers, 
the  rest  of  the  punishment  may  be  lightened  with  the  approval 
of  the  Bishop. 

13.  If  a  man  is  not  a  monk  when  he  leaves  the  service  of  the 
Church,  he  should  do  penance  for  seven  years. 

14.  Basil  decided  that  a  boy  under  sixteen  might  marry  if  he 
could  not  abstain.  In  case  he  had  been  a  monk,  ne  was,  how- 
ever, to  be  treated  as  a  bigamist  and  do  penance  for  one  year. 

Chapter  ix.  is  headed  "  De  his  qui  degraduntur  vel  ordinari 
non  possunt.''^ 

1.  A  bishop,  priest,  or  deacon  committing  fornication  is  to  be 
degraded  and  to  be  adjudged  penance  as  prescribed  by  the 
Bishop;  nevertheless  he  may  communicate.  "While  the  man 
thus  loses  his  worldly  position  his  soul  is  made  to  live  by  the 
penance." 

2.  If  any  one  having  devoted  himself  to  God  adopt  a  lay 
habit,  he  must  not  again  be  raised  to  any  other  rank  {gradum). 

3.  Nor,  if  a  woman,  ought  she  to  adopt  the  veil.  It  is  much 
better  she  should  not  have  authority  in  the  Church. 

4.  If  any  priest  or  deacon  marry  a  strange  woman  he  is  to  be 
publicly  degraded. 

5.  If  he  commit  adultery  and  appear  publicly  with  her,  he 
shall  be  excluded  from  the  Church  and  suffer  penance  among  the 
laity  as  long  as  he  lives. 

6.  If  he  has  a  concubine  he  ought  not  to  be  ordained. 

7.  If  a  priest,  in  his  own  diocese  or  in  another,  or  any- 
where else  where  he  may  be,  professes  to  be  infirm  and  is 
unwilling  to  go  and  baptize  any  one  because  of  the  length  of  the 
journey,  and  the  person  dies  without  baptism,  he  is  to  be 
deposed. 

8.  Similarly,  he  who  kills  a  man  or  commits  fornication  is  to 
be  deposed. 

9.  No  young  man  living  in  a  monastery  is  to  be  ordained 
before  he  is  twenty-five. 


APPENDIX  II  245 

10.  If  any  one  marries  a  widow,  either  before  she  has  been 
baptized  or  after,  he  is  not  to  be  ordained,  but  is  to  be  treated 
as  if  he  were  a  bigamist. 

11.  If  any  one  w^ho  is  not  ordained  baptize  some  one  through 
temerity,  he  is  to  be  ejected  from  the  Church  and  never  ordained. 

12.  If  any  one  be  ordained  by  chance  before  he  is  baptized, 
those  whom  he  has  baptized  must  be  baptized  again,  and  he 
must  not  baptize  any  more.^ 

"This  again,"  says  the  reporter,  "was  differently  decided  by 
the  Roman  See,  which  declared  that  it  is  not  the  unbaptized  man 
who  baptizes  in  such  a  case,  but  the  Spirit  of  God  which  confers 
the  grace  of  baptism.  The  matter,  however,  was  adjudged 
differently  in  the  case  of  a  pagan  priest  who  was  believed  to 
have  been  baptized,  since  his  works  showed  he  had  the  Catholic 
faith.  Others  held  that  in  such  a  case  a  man  might  baptize  and 
ordain. 

Chapter  x.  is  headed  "  De  Baptizatis  bis,  qualiter 
pefiiteantP 

1.  Those  who  in  ignorance  have  been  baptized  twice  should 
not  in  consequence  suffer  penance,  although  according  to  the 
canons  they  might  not  ordain  unless  when  compelled  by 
necessity. 

2.  If  any  one,  however,  being  aware  that  he  had  been 
previously  baptized,  should  wilfully  be  rebaptized  (thus,  as  it 
were,  crucifying  Christ  twice),  he  must  suffer  penance  for  seven 
years  on  the  fourth  and  sixth  days  of  the  week,  i.e.  on 
Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  and  also  during  three  Lents.  If  he  did 
this  for  some  worldly  reason  {pro  mundantia),  for  three  years. 

Chapter  xi.  is  headed  "  De  his  qui  damna?it  Dominicam  et 
indicia  jejunia  aecdesia  Dei.^^ 

1.  In  regard  to  those  who  work  on  the  Lord's  Day,  the 
Greeks  are  wont  on  their  first  breach  to  argue  with  the 
offenders ;  on  the  second  occasion  they  take  something  from 
them  ;  on  the  third  they  deprive  them  of  a  third  of  their  goods, 
or  flog  them,  or  exact  a  seven  days'  penance. 

2.  If  any  one  should  fast  on  the  Lord's  Day  through  negli- 
gence, he  must  fast  during  all  the  succeeding  week.  If  he 
do  it  again,  he  must  fast  for  twenty  days ;  if  more  than  twice, 
forty  days. 

^  Because  a  man  cannot  be  ordained  twice. 


2  46  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

3.  If  he  fast  thus,  in  order  to  show  his  contempt  for  the 
Lord's  Day  Hke  the  Jews,  he  is  to  be  abhorred  by  all  Catholic 
churches. 

4.  If,  however,  he  contemns  the  practice  of  Christian  fasting 
altogether,  and,  contrary  to  the  decrees  of  the  elders,  breaks 
his  fast  in  another  season  than  Lent,  he  is  to  do  penance  for 
forty  days;  if  in  Lent  itself,  for  a  year.  If  he  contemns  the 
Lent  fast  altogether,  he  must  do  forty  days'  penance. 

5.  If  he  commits  such  breaches  frequently,  he  is  to  be 
expelled  from  the  Church,  in  accordance  with  the  Lord's 
saying,  "They  who  scandalise  {scandalizarent)  one  of  these  little 
ones,"  etc. 

Chapter  xii.  is  headed  ''''  De  Communione  Eucharistiae  vel 
Sacrificio." 

1.  The  Greeks,  both  clergy  and  laity,  communicate  every 
Sunday,  as  the  canons  require,  and  those  who  fail  to  do  so  for 
three  Sundays  are  excommunicated. 

2.  The  Romans  can  also  communicate  every  Sunday  if 
they  wish,  but  when  they  do  not  do  so  they  are  not  ex- 
communicated. 

3.  Both  Greeks  and  Romans  abstain  from  women  for  three 
days  before  the  offering  of  the  bread  {ante  panes  propositionis)^ 
as  is  bidden  in  the  Scriptures. 

4.  Penitents,  according  to  the  canons,  ought  not  to  com- 
municate before  completing  their  penance.  We,  however, 
through  compassion  allow  them  to  do  so  after  a  year  or  six 
months  has  elapsed  after  the  beginning  of  their  penance. 

5.  He  who  takes  the  sacrifice  {sacrificium)  as  food  is  to  do 
penance  for  seven  days  in  the  discretion  of  the  Bishop.  (In 
some  copies  the  clause  about  the  Bishop  is  omitted.) 

6.  Every  sacrifice  {omne  sacrificiuni)  which  becomes  dirty  and 
soiled  by  age  is  to  be  burnt. 

7.  Confession  to  God  alone,  is  permissible,  if  it  be  under 
necessity.     (The  limiting  clause  is  absent  from  some  copies.) 

8.  He  who  accidentally  mislays  the  sacrifice,  and  it  is  in 
consequence  devoured  by  beasts  or  birds,  is  to  fast  for  three 
weeks ;  if  from  negligence,  three  Lents. 

Chapter  xiii. — "/>^  Reconciliatione.^'' 

I.  The  Romans  reconcile  men  within  "the  apse"  {intra 
absident) ;  not  so  the  Greeks. 


APPENDIX  II  247 

2.  The  reconciliation  of  penitents  is  to  be  made  on  Good 
Friday,  and  only  by  the  Bishop  and  after  the  completion  of 
the  penance. 

3.  If,  however,  the  Bishop  find  a  difficulty  in  doing  it,  a 
priest  may  do  it  on  the  ground  of  necessity. 

4.  "  In  this  Province  "  a  public  reconciliation  is  not  required 
and  public  penance  is  not  exacted. 

Chapter  xiv. — "Z^^  Penitentia  Nubentium  specialitery 

1.  In  a  first  marriage  the  priest  ought  to  say  Mass  and  to 
bless  both  parties,  after  which  they  are  to  abstain  from  church 
for  thirty  days.  They  are  then  to  do  penance  for  forty  days 
and  abstain  from  public  prayer,  and  afterwards  to  communicate 
with  oblation. 

2.  Bigamists  must  do  penance  for  one  year,  and  on  the 
Wednesday  and  Friday  and  during  three  Lents  they  must  abstain 
from  meat.  They  must  not  be  separated,  however,  nor  should 
a  man  in  such  a  case  dismiss  his  wife. 

3.  In  the  case  of  trigamists  the  man  is  to  do  similar  penance 
for  seven  years  on  the  fourth  and  sixth  days,  while  for  three 
Lents  they  are  to  abstain  from  meat,  nor  is  it  permissible  for 
him  to  separate  from  his  wife.  "Basil  so  decided;  the  canon, 
however,  prescribes  a  four  years'  penance." 

4.  If  a  man  find  that  his  wife  has  committed  adultery  and 
he  is  unwilling  to  separate  from  her,  he  is  to  do  penance  for  two 
days  weekly  for  two  years,  with  fasting  as  long  as  the  penance 
continues.  In  such  a  case  he  must  abstain  from  matrimonial 
intercourse  with  her  inasmuch  as  she  has  committed  adultery. 

5.  If  any  man  or  woman  have  made  a  vow  of  virginity  and 
marries,  the  two  must  not  separate  but  must  do  penance  for 
four  years. 

6.  Stupid  vows  and  those  impossible  to  carry  out  {vota 
stulta  et  importabilia)  must  be  cancelled. 

7.  It  is  not  lawful  for  a  woman  to  make  a  vow  without  the 
consent  of  her  husband;  but  if  she  have  vowed  to  leave  him, 
she  can  do  so  on  doing  such  penance  as  is  prescribed  by 
the  priest. 

8.  He  who  separates  from  his  wife  and  takes  another  must 
do  seven  years'  penance  with  chastisement. 

9.  He  who  pollutes  the  wife  of  his  relative  must  do  penance 
for  three  years,  with  abstention  from  his  own  wife,  twice  a  week 
during  three  Lents, 


248   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

10.  If  he  does  so  with  a  virgin  he  is  to  do  penance  for  a 
year  without  meat  or  wine. 

11.  If  she  be  a  servant  of  God  {puellam  Dei),  he  must  do 
penance  for  three  years,  whether  she  have  a  son  or  not  by 
him. 

12.  If  she  be  his  slave,  he  must  give  her  her  freedom  and 
do  penance  for  six  months. 

13.  If  his  wife  go  away  with  another  man,  and  returns 
without  having  been  polluted,  she  is  to  do  one  year's  penance ; 
otherwise,  three  years.  He  himself  is  to  do  a  year's  penance 
if  he  take  another  wife. 

14.  A  woman  committing  adultery  is  to  do  seven  years' 
penance,  as  it  is  provided  in  the  canon. 

15.  17,  18,  19,  21,  22,  and  23  are  too  gross  for  translation. 

16.  A  wife  who  takes  her  husband's  blood  as  a  remedy  is 
to  do  penance  for  forty  days,  more  or  less. 

20.  Any  one  marrying  on  a  Sunday  must  ask  pardon  from 
God  and  do  penance  for  one,  two,  or  three  days. 

24.  Women  who  commit  abortion  before  there  is  evidence 
of  life  in  the  child  must  do  penance  for  a  year,  or  three  Lents, 
or  forty  days,  according  to  the  degree  of  her  fault ;  if  she  do  it 
after  signs  of  life  have  appeared  {i.e.  forty  days  after  conception), 
she  is  to  be  treated  as  a  homicide  with  penance  for  three  years 
and  with  fasting  on  the  fourth  and  sixth  days  and  during  three 
Lents.     This  is  according  to  the  canon. 

25.  When  a  woman  kills  her  son,  if  it  amount  to  homicide, 
she  must  do  fifteen  years'  penance,  except  on  Sundays. 

26.  If  a  woman  who  kills  her  child  is  very  poor,  she  is  to 
do  penance  for  seven  years.  The  canon  says  when  it  amounts 
to  homicide  it  is  to  be  for  ten  years. 

27.  A  woman  who  kills  her  child  within  forty  days  of  con- 
ception is  to  do  one  year's  penance ;  if  after  forty  days,  it  must 
be  treated  as  homicide. 

28.  If  an  infirm  child  or  a  pagan  be  entrusted  to  a  priest  and 
dies,  the  priest  is  to  give  him  up. 

29.  If  a  child  die  from  neglect  of  the  parents,  they  must  do 
one  year's  penance ;  and  if  a  child  of  three  years  old  dies  with- 
out being  baptized,  the  father  and  mother  must  do  three  years' 
penance. 

30.  He  who  kills  his  son  before  baptism  is,  according  to 
the  canon,  to  do  penance  for  ten  years ;  if  after  deliberation  {per 
consilium)  seven  years. 


APPENDIX  II  249 

Chapter  xv.  is  headed  "Z)tf  culture  Idolorum" 

1.  Those  who  sacrifice  to  demons  in  a  small  way  are  to  do 
a  year's  penance ;  if  in  a  large  way,  ten  years. 

2.  A  woman  who  puts  her  daughter  on  the  roof  or  in  the 
oven  to  cure  her  of  fever  is  to  do  seven  years'  penance.  (These 
were  apparently  pagan  remedies.) 

3.  He  who  burns  grain  {gra?ia)  when  a  man  has  died,  for  the 
health  of  the  survivors  and  for  his  house,  is  to  do  five  years' 
penance.     (This  also  was  a  pagan  practice.) 

4.  If  a  woman  perform  diabolical  incantations  or  divina- 
tions, she  is  to  do  penance  for  one  year,  or  three  Lents,  or  forty 
days,  according  to  the  quality  of  the  fault.  About  this  it  is  said 
in  the  canon :  "  They  who  are  guilty  of  augury,  prophecies 
(auspicia\  dreams,  or  divinations  after  the  manner  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  have  introduced  men  into  her  house  to  practise 
such  acts,  if  they  are  clerics  must  be  deposed,  if  laymen  they 
are  to  do  five  years'  penance." 

5.  In  the  case  of  one  who  eats  the  flesh  of  animals  which 
have  been  sacrificed,  and  then  confesses,  the  priest  is  to  make 
inquiry  what  his  age  is  and  in  what  manner  he  was  taught,  or 
how  it  came  about,  and  is  to  measure  the  punishment  by  the 
amount  of  the  guilt.  This  is  to  be  the  case  in  all  penances  and 
confessions. 

The  Second  Book 

Chapter  i.  is  headed  "  De  Ecclesiae  ?ni?iisterio  vel  reaedificatione 
eJusJ^ 

1.  It  is  lawful  to  remove  a  church  to  another  site,  and  it  is 
not  necessary  to  reconsecrate  it,  but  the  priest  ought  to  asperge 
the  old  site  with  water  and  to  place  a  cross  on  the  site  of  the  altar. 

2.  Two  Masses  may  be  said  at  every  altar  on  the  same  day, 
and  any  one  who  fails  to  communicate  is  not  to  approach  the 
bread  (panem)  nor  share  in  the  kiss  in  the  Mass.  He  also  who 
has  previously  eaten  {inanducat)  is  not  to  share  in  the  kiss. 

3.  Wood  that  has  been  used  in  a  church  is  not  to  be 
used  for  any  purpose  other  than  that  of  another  church  or  for 
burning,  or  by  the  brethren  in  a  monastery,  or  to  bake  the 
loaves  {panes^  i.e.  the  hosts) ;  but  not  for  lay  purposes. 

4.  In  a  church  where  the  bodies  of  unbelievers  are  buried  it 
is  not  allowable  to  hallow  an  altar ;  but  if  it  seem  suitable  for 
consecration  they  are  to  be  removed  (evulsa)^  and  re-erected 
after  the  timbers  have  been  scraped  or  washed. 


2  50  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

5.  If,  however,  it  had  been  previously  consecrated,  it  is 
allowable  to  say  Mass  at  it  if  religious  men  {religiosi)  are  buried 
there  ;  if,  however,  a  pagan  is  buried  there,  it  is  better  to  cleanse 
it  and  remove  his  remains  {mundari  et  jadari  foras). 

6.  Steps  ought  not  to  be  made  before  the  altar. 

7.  Relics  of  the  saints  are  to  be  venerated. 

8.  If  possible,  a  taper  should  be  burnt  every  night  where  the 
remains  are  {ibi) ;  if,  however,  poverty  prevents  this,  there  is  no 
harm  done. 

9.  The  incense  of  the  Lord  is  to  be  burnt  on  the  natal  days 
of  saints  in  reverence  for  the  day,  "  for,  like  lilies,  it  gives  an 
odour  of  sweetness  "  ;  on  such  days  they  should  also  asperge  the 
Church  of  God  and  cense  the  church,  beginning  with  the  altar. 

10.  A  layman  ought  not  to  read  a  lection  in  church  nor  sing 
an  Alleluia,  but  he  may  sing  psalms  and  responses  without 
Alleluia. 

11.  Men  may  asperge  the  houses  in  which  they  live  with 
holy  water  whenever  they  wish.  When  water  is  consecrated, 
a  prayer  should  be  said. 

The  second  chapter  is  headed  ^''  De  tribiis  Gradibus  Aecdesiae 
prindpalibus. " 

1.  It  is  allowable  for  a  bishop  to  confirm  in  the  open  air  {in 
campd)  if  necessary  {i.e.  probably  when  the  church  was  too  small). 

2.  And  so  a  priest  may  say  Mass  out  of  doors  if  a  deacon  or 
the  priest  himself  hold  the  chalice  and  oblation. 

3.  A  bishop  ought  not  to  compel  an  abbot  to  attend  a  synod 
unless  there  is  a  reasonable  cause. 

4.  A  bishop  may  decide  the  lawsuits  of  the  poor  to  the  extent 
of  fifty  solidi,  but  over  that  sum  it  is  the  duty  of  the  King. 

5.  A  bishop  or  an  abbot  may  keep  a  criminal  as  a  slave  if 
the  latter  have  not  the  money  for  his  own  redemption. 

6.  A  bishop  may  discharge  a  vow  if  he  thinks  well. 

7.  A  priest  may  say  Mass,  bless  the  people  on  Good  Friday, 
or  sanctify  a  cross. 

8.  It  is  not  compulsory  to  give  tithes  to  a  priest. 

9.  It  is  not  allowable  for  a  priest  to  disclose  the  sin 
i^peccatuni)  of  a  bishop.     This  is  because  he  is  set  over  him. 

10.  The  sacrifice  is  not  to  be  received  at  the  hands  of  a  priest 
who  cannot  say  the  prayers  or  read  the  lections  according  to  the 
rite. 

I  J.  When  a  priest,  or  other,  sings  the  responses  in  the  Mass 


APPENDIX  II  251 

he  is  not  to  take  off  his  cope,  but  is  to  put  it  on  his  shoulders 
at  the  reading  of  the  Gospel. 

12.  If  a  priest  fornicate  and  it  is  found  out,  those  who  have 
meanwhile  been  baptized  by  him  must  be  rebaptized. 

13.  If  an  ordained  priest  discover  that  he  has  not  himself 
been  baptized,  he  should  be  baptized  and  ordained  afresh ;  all 
those  whom  he  has  baptized  should  also  be  baptized  again. 

14.  "Among  the  Greeks,  deacons  do  not  break  the  holy 
bread,  nor  do  they  repeat  the  Collect  {coUectione?fi)  nor  the 
Domtnus  vobiscum,  nor  the  last  of  the  Mass  Collects  "  (known  in 
later  times  as  the  "  Post  Common  "). 

15.  It  is  not  permitted  to  a  deacon  to  impose  penance  on  a 
layman,  but  only  to  a  bishop  or  priest. 

16.  Deacons  may  baptize  or  bless  food  or  drink,  but  may 
not  distribute  the  bread  [panem  dare).  Similarly,  monks  and 
clerks  may  bless  food. 

The  third  chapter  is  headed  "  De  Ordinationibus  diversorum." 

1.  At  the  ordaining  of  a  bishop  the  Mass  should  be  chanted 
by  the  ordaining  bishop. 

2.  At  the  ordination  of  a  priest  or  deacon  the  bishop  ought 
to  celebrate  the  Mass.  This  is  also  the  fashion  of  the  Greeks  at 
the  consecration  of  an  abbot  or  abbess. 

3.  At  the  ordination  of  a  monk,  the  abbot  should  say  Mass 
and  repeat  three  prayers  over  his  head.  For  seven  days  the  monk 
ought  to  veil  his  head  with  a  cowl,  and  on  the  seventh  day  the 
abbot  is  to  remove  it,  just  as  at  baptism  the  priest  removes  the  veil 
from  the  child.  The  abbot  should  do  so  to  a  monk  because 
his  consecration  is  his  second  baptism,  which  in  the  judgment 
of  the  Fathers  removes  all  sins,  as  in  baptism. 

4.  A  priest  may  consecrate  an  abbess  with  a  celebration  of 
Mass. 

5.  At  the  consecration  of  an  abbot,  however,  the  bishap 
should  say  Mass  and  bless  him  with  bowed  head  in  the  presence 
of  two  or  three  witnesses  selected  from  his  brethren,  and  give 
him  the  staff  {bacuhwi)  and  crooks  {pedules). 

6.  Nuns  and  basilicae  should  always  be  consecrated  with 
Mass. 

7.  The  Greeks  consecrate  a  widow  and  virgin  in  the  same 
way,  and  elect  either  to  the  position  of  an  abbess.  The  Romans, 
however,  do  not  veil  a  widow  as  they  do  a  virgin. 

8.  According  to  the  Greeks,  it  is  allowable  for  a  priest  to 


2  5  2  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

consecrate  a  virgin  with  a  sacred  veil,  to  reconcile  a  penitent, 
and  to  make  the  exorcising  oil  and  the  chrism  for  the  infirm,  if 
necessary.  Among  the  Romans  these  duties  are  reserved  for 
bishops. 

The  fourth  chapter  is  headed  "Z?<?  Baptisviate  et  Co7ifirma- 
tione" 

1.  In  baptism  sins  are  remitted  {demittu?itur).  Not  so  when 
the  child  is  the  offspring  of  a  doubtful  connection  with  a  woman, 
since  in  that  case  sons  born  before  baptism  would  afterwards  be 
deemed  her  true  sons. 

2.  A  woman  who  was  married  before  she  was  baptized 
could  not  be  deemed  a  real  wife ;  therefore  any  sons  she  had 
before  baptism  could  not  be  treated  as  real  sons,  nor  were  they 
to  call  each  other  brothers,  nor  to  share  in  the  inheritance. 

3.  If  a  Gentile  {i.e.  an  unbaptized  person)  give  alms  and 
practises  abstinence  and  other  good  works  which  we  cannot 
enumerate,  he  does  not  lose  the  benefit  of  these  at  baptism. 
The  good  is  not  lost,  but  the  bad  will  be  washed  away.  This 
was  approved  by  Pope  Innocent,  who  took  his  precedent  from 
what  happened  in  the  case  of  the  catechumen  Cornelius. 

4.  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  said  that  the  second  baptism  is 
one  of  tears. 

5.  Baptism  is  not  perfect  without  confirmation  by  a  bishop. 
"  However,  we  do  not  despair  of  one  in  such  a  case." 

6.  Chrism  was  appointed  by  the  Nicene  Council. 

7.  It  is  not  incorrect  to  use  the  same  pan?ius  chrismatis 
{i.e.  the  chrismal  napkin)  again  upon  another  baptized  person. 

8.  If  it  be  necessary,  one  person  may  act  as  father,  i.e. 
godfather,  both  at  the  baptism  and  confirmation  of  a  person. 
This  is  not  usual,  however,  and  a  different  one  is  generally 
selected  for  each  ceremony. 

9.  It  is  not  allowable  to  act  as  godfather  {alium  suscipere) 
when  a  person  has  not  been  baptized  or  confirmed. 

10.  A  man  may,  however,  be  godparent  to  a  woman  and  a 
woman  to  a  man. 

11.  It  is  not  allowable  for  the  baptized  to  eat  with  the 
catechumens  nor  to  kiss  them,  still  less  to  do  so  with  Gentiles. 

The  fifth  chapter  is  headed  "Z>^  Missa  Defunctorum." 
I.  According  to  the  Roman  Church,  it  is  customary  to  carry 
dead  monks  and  other  religious  men  to  the  church,  and  then  to 


APPENDIX   II  253 

touch  their  breasts  with  chrism,  to  celebrate  Mass  for  them,  to 
carry  them  to  their  graves,  and  when  placed  there  to  say  a 
prayer  for  them  and  to  cover  them  with  earth  or  stone. 

2.  On  the  first,  third,  ninth,  and  thirtieth  days  Masses  are 
to  be  said  for  dead  monks,  and  also  after  twelve  months  if  they 
so  wished  it  (si  voluerint  servatur). 

3.  In  the  case  of  a  dead  monk  a  Mass  is  to  be  said  on  the 
day  of  his  burial  and  the  third  day  after,  and  afterwards  as  often 
as  the  abbot  desires. 

4.  Masses  are  also  to  be  said  for  dead  monks  every  week, 
when  it  is  the  custom  to  recite  their  names. 

5.  Masses  for  dead  laymen  are  to  be  said  three  times  in  the 
year,  on  the  third,  ninth,  and  thirtieth  days,  and  this  because  the 
Lord  rose  from  the  dead  on  the  third  day,  died  at  the  ninth 
hour,  and  the  Israelites  lamented  Moses  for  thirty  days. 

6.  For  a  good  layman  Mass  is  to  be  said  on  the  third  day ; 
for  a  penitent,  on  the  thirtieth  or  the  seventh  after  a  fast,  because 
his  relatives  ought  to  fast  for  seven  days  and  make  an  offering 
at  the  altar,  as  was  said  by  Jesus,  son  of  Sirach,  "  And  the 
children  of  Israel  fasted  for  Saul,"  and  afterwards  as  often  as 
the  priest  shall  desire.     (This  is  an  ambiguous  clause.) 

7.  Some  say  it  is  not  allowable  to  say  Masses  for  infants 
under  seven  years  old,  but  it  is  in  fact  permissible. 

8.  Dionysius,  the  Areopagite,  says  it  is  blaspheming  God  to 
say  Masses  for  a  bad  man. 

9.  Augustine  says  they  ought  to  be  said  for  all  Christians, 
for  they  may  either  console  those  who  make  them  or  profit  those 
for  whom  they  are  offered. 

10.  It  is  not  permissible  to  say  Masses  for  a  priest  or  a 
deacon  who  could  not  or  would  not  accept  the  Communion. 

The  sixth  chapter  is  headed  "  De  Abbatibus  et  Monachis  et 
Monasterioy 

1.  An  abbot  may  resign  his  office  from  humility  and  with 
the  consent  of  a  bishop.  Nevertheless,  the  brethren  must  elect 
his  successor  from  their  own  number  if  they  have  one  among 
them  who  is  fit ;  if  not,  a  stranger. 

2.  A  bishop  ought  not  by  force  to  retain  an  abbot  in  his 
position  {m  loco  suo). 

3.  The  brethren  ought  to  elect  their  new  abbot  after  the 
decease  of  the  previous  one  ;  or  in  the  latter's  lifetime  if  he  have 
taken  his  departure  or  commits  sin. 


2  5  4  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

4.  An  abbot  must  not  ordain  one  of  his  relatives  to  his  own 
post  nor  give  the  post  to  a  stranger  nor  to  another  abbot  without 
the  consent  of  the  brethren. 

5.  If  an  abbot  sin,  the  bishop  has  no  power  to  remove  him, 
but  he  must  send  him  to  another  abbey  and  another  abbot. 

6.  It  is  not  allowable  for  a  bishop  or  an  abbot  to  dispose 
of  the  property  of  the  community  to  another  abbey,  although 
both  may  be  in  his  jurisdiction.  If  he  wish  to  exchange  the 
land  with  another  abbey,  it  should  be  done  with  the  consent 
of  both  the  communities. 

7.  If,  again,  he  wish  to  move  his  monastery  to  another  place, 
he  can  do  so  with  the  consent  of  the  bishop  and  the  brethren, 
at  the  same  time  leaving  at  the  former  site  a  priest  to  minister 
to  the  church. 

8.  It  is  not  permissible  for  monks  to  have  women  in  their 
monasteries,  nor  for  nuns,  similarly,  to  have  men ;  nevertheless, 
says  Theodore,  "  I  do  not  wish  to  destroy  what  is  the  custom  in 
this  country." 

(It  would  seem  that  this  is  directed  against  double  monasteries, 
presided  over  in  some  cases  by  women  and  in  others  by 
men.) 

9.  A  monk  should  not  make  a  vow  without  the  consent  of 
the  abbot,  and  if  he  do  so  it  may  be  broken. 

10.  If  an  abbot  have  a  monk  worthy  of  the  episcopate  in  his 
house,  he  ought  to  give  him  up  if  it  be  necessary. 

11.  A  boy  is  not  to  be  allowed  to  marry  when  he  has  already 
taken  a  monk's  vow. 

12.  If  a  monk  has  been  selected  by  the  brethren  for  the 
rank  of  a  priest,  he  ought  not  to  give  up  his  previous  monk's 
life. 

13.  If  presently,  however,  he  be  found  to  be  proud,  dis- 
obedient, or  vicious,  and  to  lead  a  worse  life  in  the  higher  station, 
he  may  be  deposed  and  reduced  to  his  former  position,  or  be 
restored  in  the  lowest  grade,  unless  he  make  amends. 

14.  It  is  allowable  for  a  monastery  to  receive  the  infirm. 

15.  It  is  permissible  in  such  a  monastery  to  wash  the  feet 
of  laymen,  except  on  Maundy  Thursday. 

16.  It  is  not  allowable  for  monks  to  impose  penances  on 
laymen  ;  this  is  strictly  the  duty  of  the  clergy. 

The  seventh  chapter  is  headed  "Z^<?  Ritu  Mulierum  vel 
Minis terio  in  Aecclesia" 


APPENDIX   II  255 

1.  Women  should  not  veil  the  altar  with  the  corporal  nor 
place  the  oblations  in  the  chalice,  nor  are  they  to  stand  among 
the  ordained  in  the  church  nor  to  sit  among  the  clergy  at  feasts. 

2.  Women  are  not  to  prescribe  penances.  This,  according 
to  the  canons,  is  the  function  of  the  clergy. 

3.  Women  may,  when  wearing  a  black  veil,  receive  the 
sacrifice  as  St.  Basil  decided. 

4.  According  to  the  Greeks,  women  may  make  the  oblations, 
but  not  so  according  to  the  Romans. 

Chapter  eight  is  headed  ^'' De Moribus  Grecorum  etRomanoru?ny 

1.  On  Sundays  the  Greeks  and  Romans  alike  sail  and  ride 
on  horseback,  but  they  do  not  make  bread  and  do  not  ride  in 
carriages,  except  to  church,  nor  do  they  bathe. 

2.  The  Greeks  do  not  write  in  public  on  a  Sunday,  but  when 
necessary  write  at  home. 

3.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  give  their  clothes  to  their  slaves 
and  they  work  them  without  a  Sunday's  rest. 

4.  Greek  monks  do  not  have  slaves ;  Romans  have  them. 

5.  The  Romans  take  refreshment  at  nine  o'clock  on  the  day 
before  Christmas  Day,  that  is,  the  vigil  of  our  Lord,  after  Mass 
has  been  said ;  the  Greeks  before  doing  so  say  Vespers  and  the 
Mass. 

6.  Both  Greeks  and  Romans  visit  those  stricken  with  the 
plague,  as  in  the  case  of  other  diseases,  in  accordance  with  the 
Lord's  command. 

7.  The  Greeks  do  not  give  the  flesh  of  dead  animals  to  pigs, 
but  allow  their  skins  and  furs  to  be  used  for  shoes,  and  similarly 
with  their  wool  and  horns,  but  such  things  are  not  to  be  used 
for  any  sacred  purpose. 

8.  The  head  may  be  washed  on  Sundays  and  also  the  feet 
{lavatio  pedum)  \  the  last,  however,  is  not  customary  with  the 
Romans. 

The  ninth  chapter  is  headed  "Z>^  Communione  Scottorum  et 
Brittonum  qui  in  Pascha  et  tonsura  catholici  noti  sunt." 

1.  Those  who  are  ordained  by  Scotch  or  British  bishops, 
and  who  do  not  conform  to  the  Catholic  practice  about  Easter 
and  the  tonsure,  are  not  deemed  to  be  in  communion  with  the 
Church,  and  should  be  confirmed  by  a  fresh  imposition  of  hands 
by  a  Catholic  bishop. 

2.  Similarly,  the  churches  which  are  consecrated  by  the  same 


2  5  6  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

bishops  are  to  be  asperged  with  exorcised  water  and  reconfirmed 
with  a  Collect. 

3.  We  have  not  the  power,  at  their  request,  to  give  them 
chrism  or  the  Eucharist  until  they  confess  that  they  wish  to  join 
with  us  in  the  unity  of  the  Church.  Any  one  among  these  people, 
as  well  as  any  one  else  who  doubts  the  regularity  of  his  own 
baptism,  should  be  rebaptized. 

The  tenth  chapter  is  headed  "  De  Vexatis  a  diabuloU'' 

1.  If  a  man  be  vexed  by  a  devil  and  run  about  heedlessly, 
or  kill  himself,  he  ought  to  be  prayed  for,  if  he  was  previously  a 
religious  person. 

2.  If  he  have  killed  himself  from  desperation,  or  fear,  or  some 
unknown  reason,  we  leave  the  decision  to  God  and  do  not  dare 
to  pray  for  him. 

3.  In  the  case  of  one  who  wilfully  kills  himself  no  Masses 
should  be  said,  but  he  may  be  prayed  for  and  alms  may  be  given 
for  him. 

4.  In  the  case  of  a  Christian  who,  seized  by  a  sudden  out- 
break, loses  his  mind  or  becomes  insane  and  kills  himself,  some 
are  accustomed  to  say  Masses  for  him. 

5.  In  resisting  a  devil  it  is  lawful  to  cast  stones  and  herbs 
{holera)  at  him,  but  not  to  use  incantations. 

Chapter  xi.  is  headed  "On  the  Use  or  Nonuse  of 
Animals." 

1.  Animals  which  have  been  lacerated  by  wolves  or  dogs  are 
not  to  be  eaten,  nor  is  a  stag  or  a  goat  which  is  found  dead, 
unless  it  have  been  killed  previously  by  a  man. 

2.  Birds  and  other  animals  strangled  in  nets  are  not  to 
be  eaten  by  men,  nor  if  found  slain  by  hawks,  for  in  the 
fourth  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  are  told  to  abstain 
from  fornication,  from  blood,  from  things  strangled,  and  from 
idolatry. 

3.  Fish,  however,  may  be  eaten,  for  they  are  of  a  different 
nature. 

4.  Horse-flesh  is  not  forbidden,  but  it  is  not  the  custom  to 
eat  it  {consuetudo  non  est  coniedere). 

5.  It  is  lawful  to  eat  a  hare,  and  it  is  good  for  dysentery ; 
while  its  gall,  mixed  with  pepper,  is  good  for  quelling  pain. 

6.  If  bees  kill  a  man,  they  ought  to  be  killed  as  soon  as  may 
be,  but  the  honey  may  be  eaten. 


APPENDIX  II  257 

7.  If  by  chance  pigs  eat  the  flesh  of  an  animal  found  dead 
or  the  blood  of  a  man,  they  are  not  to  be  thrown  away,  nor  are 
hens,  but  they  may  be  eaten. 

8.  It  is  not  pe-mitted  to  eat  the  flesh  of  animals  which  have 
fed  on  the  bodies  of  the  dead  until  twelve  months  have  elapsed. 

9.  Animals  which  have  been  polluted  by  men  must  be  put 
to  death  and  their  flesh  given  to  the  dogs,  but  their  ofl"spring 
may  be  used,  and  their  skins  also.  When  there  is  doubt  about 
the  matter  they  need  not  be  killed. 

Chapter  xii.  is  headed  '''  De  Questionibus  Confugiorufn." 
I   shall  leave  out   some  of  the  headings    in    this    chapter, 
which  are  not  fit  for  publication. 

6.  A  woman  should  not  desert  her  husband,  even  if  he  be  a 
fornicator,  unless  for  the  sake  of  entering  a  monastery.  Basil 
decided  this. 

7.  A  legitimate  marriage  ought  not  to  be  dissolved  except 
with  the  consent  of  both  parties. 

8.  It  is  lawful,  however,  for  one  party  to  consent  to  the 
other  entering  the  service  of  God  in  a  monastery  and  then  to 
marry  again  if  it  was  the  first  marriage.  "  This  is  according  to 
the  Greeks."  "Yet,"  says  the  reporter,  "it  is  not  canonical 
for  one  to  marry  again  during  the  life  of  the  other." 

If  a  man  become  a  slave  in  consequence  of  having  com- 
mitted theft  or  fornication,  his  wife,  if  it  was  her  first  marriage, 
may  after  a  twelvemonth  take  another  husband ;  but  not  if  she 
have  married  twice. 

9.  If  a  man's  wife  die,  he  may  take  another  after  a  month.  A 
woman  may  take  another  husband,  but  only  after  a  twelvemonth. 

10.  If  a  woman  commit  adultery  and  her  husband  will  not 
live  with  her,  she  may,  if  she  wishes,  enter  a  monastery,  and  in 
such  a  case  can  claim  a  fourth  part  of  her  heritage ;  but  if  she 
does  not  wish  to  do  this,  she  is  entitled  to  nothing. 

11.  If  a  married  woman  commit  adultery  she  is  in  the 
power  of  her  husband,  if  he  wishes  to  be  reconciled  to  her.  In 
such  a  case  she  cannot  claim  to  be  so  {in  clero  71071  proficit 
vindicta  illius)^  and  she  belongs  to  her  proper  husband. 

12.  If  a  man  arid  woman  are  married  and  he  wishes  to  serve 
God,  but  she  does  not,  or  she  wishes  and  he  does  not,  or  if 
either  of  them  is  seriously  ill,  they  may  be  entirely  separated 
with  the  consent  of  both. 

13.  A   woman   who    makes   a   vow   that   on   the  death   of 
¥0L.  iiL — 17 


2  5  8  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

her  husband  she  will  not  take  another,  and  if  on  his  death 
breaking  her  vow  she  agrees  to  take  another,  and,  if  moved  by 
penitence,  she  then  wishes  to  keep  her  former  vow,  it  is  in  the 
power  of  the  man  whether  she  shall  be  released  or  not. 

14.  Theodore  in  one  case  in  which  a  woman  had  admitted 
such  a  vow,  allowed  her  to  marry  a  second  time  after  eleven  years. 

15.  If  a  layman  makes  a  vow  without  the  consent  of  the 
bishop,  the  latter  may  dissolve  it. 

16.  A  legitimate  marriage  may  take  place  either  by  day  or 
night,  as  it  is  written,  "  Thine  is  the  day  and  Thine  the  night." 

17.  If  a  Gentile  {i.e.  an  unbaptized  person)  put  away  his 
Gentile  wife,  he  may  after  baptism  choose  whether  he  will  con- 
tinue to  live  with  her  or  not. 

18.  Similarly,  if  one  of  tt^m  is  baptized  and  the  other  is  a 
Gentile ;  for  the  Apostle  says,  "  If  the  unbeliever  depart,  let 
him  go."  If  a  man  have  a  wife  who  is  an  unbeliever  and  a 
Gentile,  and  will  not  be  converted,  she  should  be  sent  away. 

19.  If  a  woman  leave  her  husband  because  she  despises  him, 
and  is  unwilling  to  return  to  be  reconciled  to  him,  he  may  after 
five  years  take  another  wife  with  the  consent  of  the  bishop. 

20.  In  the  case  of  a  married  woman  who  has  been  captured 
by  the  enemy  and  cannot  be  redeemed,  the  husband  may  marry 
again. 

21.  If  she  have  been  made  captive  in  this  way  her  husband 
shall  wait  for  her  five  years  before  he  marries  again,  and  the 
woman  shall  do  the  same  if  the  like  befall  her  husband. 

22.  If  a  man  marry  a  second  wife  and  the  first  one  returns 
from  captivity,  he  may  leave  the  second  and  return  to  the  first. 
It  is  the  same  with  the  wife  and  her  husband. 

23.  If  a  man's  wife  is  carried  off  by  the  enemy  and  he  can- 
not get  her  back,  he  may  take  another.  It  is  better  to  do  this 
than  to  commit  fornication. 

24.  If  the  woman  returns  afterwards,  she  ought  not  to  be 
received  by  him  if  he  have  another  wife,  but  let  her  take  another 
husband.     The  same  rule  shall  apply  in  regard  to  foreign  slaves. 

25.  According  to  the  Greeks,  marriage  is  allowed  between 
those  in  the  third  degree  of  affinity,  as  it  is  written  in  the  law. 
According  to  the  Romans,  the  prohibition  extends  to  the  fifth 
dec^ree.  Nevertheless,  the  latter  do  not  dissolve  marriages  in  the 
fourth  degree  after  they  have  once  been  undertaken.  Thus  they 
are  deemed  to  be  regularly  united  in  the  fifth  degree,  while  in  the 
fourth  they  are  not  separated  if  the  marriage  has  taken  place. 


APPENDIX  II  259 

26.  After  the  death  of  her  husband  a  woman  may  not  accept 
another  who  is  related  to  him  in  the  third  degree. 

27.  Similarly,  a  man  cannot  be  joined  to  those  who  are  blood 
relations  and  to  the  blood  relations  of  his  wife  after  her  death. 

28.  Two  brothers  may  marry  two  sisters,  and  father  and  son 
may  marry  mother  and  daughter. 

33.  The  parents  of  an  engaged  woman  cannot  give  her  to 
another  man  unless  she  resists  them  altogether  {fiisi  ilia  otnnino 
resistat).     She  may,  however,  go  to  a  monastery  if  she  wishes. 

34.  If,  being  married,  she  refuse  to  live  with  the  man  to 
whom  she  is  united,  the  money  must  be  returned  to  him,  with  a 
third  more ;  if  he,  however,  decline  her,  he  loses  the  marriage 
gift  paid  with  her. 

35.  A  girl  of  sixteen  has  power  over  her  own  body. 

36.  A  boy  up  to  fifteen  years  is  in  the  power  of  his  father. 
After  that  he  can  make  himself  a  monk.  A  girl  can  make  herself 
a  nun  at  sixteen  or  seventeen.  After  this  age  the  father  cannot 
marry  a  girl  against  her  consent. 

Chapter  xiii.  is  headed  "  De  Servis  et  Ancillis" 

1.  A  father  driven  by  necessity  has  the  right  to  put  his  son 
in  servitude  at  the  age  of  seven ;  after  that  age  it  must  be  with 
the  son's  consent. 

2.  At  fourteen  a  man  may  make  himself  a  slave. 

3.  It  is  not  permitted  to  a  man  to  take  from  his  slave,  money 
which  the  latter  has  earned  by  his  own  labour. 

4.  If  a  man  marry  his  male  and  female  slave  to  one 
another  and  afterwards  either  of  them  becomes  free,  if  the  one  in 
service  cannot  be  redeemed,  the  other  is  free  to  marry  a  free 
person. 

5.  If  a  free  man  marries  a  female  slave,  he  has  not  the  right 
to  divorce  her  without  her  consent. 

6.  If  any  one  marry  a  pregnant  woman  who  is  free,  the 
child  born  from  her  is  free. 

7.  If  a  man  give  her  freedom  to  a  pregnant  woman  who 
is  a  slave,  the  child  when  born  shall  be  in  servitude. 

Chapter  xiv. — ^^  De  diversis  questionibusy 

I.  There  are  three  obligatory  fasts  which  people  must  ob- 
serve :  namely,  forty  days  before  Easter  (when  tithes  for  the  year 
are  paid),  and  forty  days  before  Christmas,  and  after  Whitsuntide 
respectively,  both  day  and  night. 


26o  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

2.  He  who  fasts  for  a  dead  man  helps  himself  only.  God 
alone  has  knowledge  of  the  dead. 

3.  Laymen  ought  not  to  delay  performing  their  promises,  for 
death  does  not  tarry. 

4.  A  servant  of  God  ought  under  no  circumstances  to  fight. 
Conciliation  is  the  role  of  the  servants  of  God. 

5.  An  infant  may  be  exchanged  for  another  who  has  been 
vowed  to  God  in  a  monastery,  but  it  is  better  to  fulfil  the 
vow. 

6.  Cattle  of  equal  value  may  be  exchanged  if  necessary. 

7.  A  king  who  possesses  the  land  of  another  king  may  give 
it  for  his  own  soul. 

8.  What  is  found  on  a  road  may  be  kept,  but  if  the  real 
owner  be  discovered  it  must  be  given  up  to  him. 

9.  The  income  {tributuni)  of  the  Church  is  to  be  distributed 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  province,  but  the  poor  are  not  to 
be  deprived  of  their  tithe  or  other  things  by  force. 

10.  It  is  not  lawful  to  give  tithes  except  to  the  poor  and  to 
pilgrims  {feregrini),  save  by  laymen  to  their  own  churches. 

11.  Out  of  reverence  for  the  new  birth  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
prayers  are  to  be  said  at  Whitsuntide  in  white  garments,  as 
also  at  Quinquagesima. 

12.  A  prayer  may  be  said  under  a  veil  when  necessary. 

13.  It  is  lawful  for  the  sick  to  take  food  and  drink  at  all 
hours  when  they  desire  and  are  able  to  take  it,  if  they  cannot 
take  it  at  the  fitting  time. 

Besides  these  are  certain  canons  not  found  in  the  official  col- 
lection. According  to  Stubbs  they  were  probably  traceable  to 
Theodore,  and  are  found  in  two  collections  known  as  the  Capitula 
Theodori,  and  the  so-called  Capitula  Gregorii.  They  are  as  follows : 

1.  A  free  man  ought  to  marry  a  free  woman. 

2.  At  one  altar,  according  to  the  Greeks,  two  Masses  may 
be  said  in  one  day.  Among  the  Romans  five  may  be  said,  on 
account  of  the  five  crosses  placed  on  it  by  the  bishop  when  he 
consecrates  it.  He  who  has  previously  eaten  is  not  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  kiss.  (This  is  a  repetition  of  the  clause  in  the  Peni- 
tential^ ii.  I,  2,  with  the  addition  of  the  words  about  the  Greeks.) 

3.  A  man  should  abstain  from  his  wife  for  forty  days  before 
Easter,  in  the  first  week  after  Easter,  and  for  a  week  after 
Pentecost.  (This  is  like  the  paragraph  in  the  Fefiitentialj  11.  xii. 
2,  with  the  last  clause  added.) 


APPENDIX   II  261 

4.  Children  in  monasteries  may  eat  meat  until  they  are 
fourteen. 

5.  The  remains  of  dead  Gentiles  (i.e.  unbaptized  people) 
should  be  ejected  from  holy  places.     (Cp.  Pe7iitential^  11.  i.  4.) 

6.  This  clause  extends  to  priors  the  provision  in  regard  to 
abbots  contained  in  the  Pe?iitential,  11.  vi.  4. 

7.  He  who  commits  a  homicide  or  a  theft  and  has  not  com- 
pounded with  those  whom  he  has  injured,  ought  to  return  what 
he  has  taken  or  compound  for  the  crime  when  he  confesses 
his  sin  to  the  bishop  or  priest.  If  he  have  no  means,  however, 
from  which  to  compound,  or  does  not  know  whom  he  has 
injured,  the  penance  must  be  increased.  (See  Penitential^  i.  iii. 
3  and  I.  iv.  i.) 

8.  No  one  should  be  buried  in  a  consecrated  church,  and  if 
it  is  found  that  there  were  dead  people  there  before  it  is  con- 
secrated then  it  should  not  be  consecrated.     (See  Penitential^  11. 

i-  4,  5-) 

9.  If  in  consequence  of  such  burials  the  church  is  moved  to 
another  site  and  the  boards  are  washed  {tabulae  laventur),  it 
should  be  hallowed  afresh.  When  it  shall  have  been  moved  to 
another  place  on  the  same  site,  it  should  be  asperged  with 
holy  water.  (This  is  in  contradiction  to  the  clause  in  the 
Peniientialj  ii.  i.) 

10.  If  a  slave  refuse  to  marry  a  maid  belonging  to  his  lord, 
he  should  accept  her  resignation. 

11.  A  man  should  not  join  in  the  common  feast  {non  ineat 
pace7ti  com?nunem — i.e.  communicate)  with  an  adulterous 
woman,  nor  a  woman  with  an  adulterous  man. 

12.  Those  who  eat  the  flesh  of  unclean  animals  or  the 
vegetables  {olera)  which  are  cooked  with  it  should  leave  the 
ministry. 

13.  A  bishop,  priest,  or  deacon  ought  to  confess  his  sins. 

14.  Prayer  must  be  offered  standing,  to  do  reverence  to  God. 

15.  If  a  priest  arrive  at  a  pagan  farm  it  is  better  to  baptize 
him  there  in  the  name  of  the  Trinity  with  water  that  has  been 
signed  with  the  cross. 

16.  If  any  one  casts  out  his  father  or  mother  he  is  to  be 
deemed  impious  and  sacrilegious,  and  is  to  do  penance  for  the 
same  length  of  time  as  his  wicked  action  lasts. 

17.  He  who  commits  self-abuse  is  to  do  one  year's  penance. 
If  he  commit  rape  or  violence  on  a  virgin  or  widow,  three  years'. 


APPENDIX    III 

C^DMON,  THE  MORNING  STAR  OF 
ENGLISH  POETRY 

Among  the  pupils  and  proteges  of  St.  Hilda,  the  one  whose 

fame  has  been  the  most  lasting  was  the  peasant  boy  Caedmon, 

who,  like    Burns,    learnt   how  to    tune   his   harp,  if  not   while 

following  the  plough,  in  tending  cattle  in  the  byre  attached  to 

the  monastery  at  Whitby, — "the  herdsman  poet,"  as  he  has  been 

fitly  called.     All  we  know  about  his  personal  history  has  been 

preserved  by  Bede,  who  was  himself  probably  born  three  or  four 

years  before  his  death,  and  who,  like  him,  was  a  Northumbrian. 

Bede's  notice  of  him  is  touched  with  romance — an  easy  product 

in  a  very  credulous  age  when  legends  rapidly  grew.     He  tells 

us  that  in  Hilda's  monastery  there  was  a  certain  brother  noted 

for  his  piety,  who   used   to   make   pious  verses,  and  whenever 

some    subject  was  interpreted  to  him  out  of  Scripture,  he  put 

it    into    poetical    form  of  much    sweetness    and   feeling   in  the 

Anglian    speech  which   was    his    native    tongue   {in  sua   id  est 

Anglorum  lingua).     Some  of  the  Anglians  who  came  after  him 

tried  to  compose  religious   poems,    but  none  were   his  equals 

{niilhis  eum  aequiparare  potuit),  for  he  learnt  the  art  of  verse  not 

from  men,  nor  was  he  taught  it  by  a  man,  but  by  a  Divine  gift. 

"  He  would  never,"  says  Bede,  "  compose  a  frivolous  or  foolish 

poem  "  {frivoli  et  superuacui  poematis).     Only  religious  themes 

were  suited  to   his  religious  tongue  {religiosam  ejus  linguani). 

He  had  lived  until  he  was  well  advanced  in  years  {ad  tempora 

proiiectioris    aetatis),    during    which    time    he    had    followed   a 

secular   life,    before   he    composed  any  verses.     In  his    earlier 

days  he  shrank  from  such  things,  and  when  he  was  present  at 

entertainments  at  which   it  was    usual    for   all    to    be   gay  and 

for   each   to   sing  in  turn,  he  used  to  rise  from  his  place  and 

return  home  when  he  noticed  that  the  harp  {cithera)  was  coming 

towards  him.     This  points  to  its   having  been  the  custom  for 

262 


APPENDIX  III  263 

men  at  that  time  to  sing  at  feasts,  it  also  shows  that  playing 
the  harp  was  widely  known. 

Having  on  such  an  occasion  left  the  table  and  gone  to  the 
cattle  byre,  which  it  was  his  duty  to  guard  during  the  night,  he  lay 
down  to  rest  at  the  wonted  hour.  When  he  was  asleep  "  a  certain 
one"  {quida?n)  appeared  to  him,  and,  calling  him  by  his  name, 
said,  "Caedmon,  sing  something  to  me"  (^Caedmo?i  ca?ita  7nihi 
aliquid).  He  replied :  "I  do  not  know  how  to  sing,  and  that 
was  the  reason  I  left  the  feast  and  came  hither."  His  guest, 
however,  again  pressed  him.  "What  must  I  sing?"  said 
Caedmon.  "Sing  about  the  beginning  of  created  things" 
{pn?icipium  creatiirartun),  was  the  reply  of  the  apparition.  He 
therefore  began  as  it  were  spontaneously,  to  sing  in  praise  of 
God  the  Creator,  in  verses  such  as  he  had  never  heard  before, 
of  which  the  sense  was  as  follows  :  "  We  ought  now  to  praise  the 
author  of  the  Divine  kingdom  and  the  power  of  the  Creator  and 
His  wisdom  {co7isilium)  and  the  deeds  of  the  Father  of  Glory 
{facta  patris gloriae).  How  He  being  the  Eternal  God  became  the 
author  of  all  miracles,  who  first  made  heaven  as  a  protecting 
roof  {pro  culmine  tecti)  for  the  children  of  men,  and  then  as  the 
preserver  of  the  human  race  created  the  earth."  Bede  claims  this 
to  be  a  paraphrase  in  Latin  of  Csedmon's  exordium.  He  expressly 
says  that  his  Latin  translation  of  it  preserves  the  sense  but 
not  the  actual  words  (sensiis,  non  aute7n  ordo  ipse  verdorufTi),  as 
Caedmon  sang  them  in  his  sleep,  for,  "  as  he  very  truly  says  "  (and 
as  we  all  know  to  our  cost),  "  verses,  however  well  composed, 
cannot  be  literally  translated  from  one  language  to  another  with- 
out losing  much  of  their  beauty  and  dignity  {decoris  ac  dig  nit  ate)." 

To  return  to  Casdmon.  Having  awoke  he  recalled  what  he 
had  seen  in  his  sleep,  and  added  much  more  to  the  same  effect 
in  verse  worthy  of  the  Deity.  In  the  morning  he  repaired  to  his 
superior,  whom  Bede  styles  the  town  reeve  {ad  viliciim,  qui  sibi 
praeerat), — in  the  English  translation  it  reads, "  To  tham  tungerefa?t 
se  the  his  Ealdorma?i  waes," — and  informed  him  of  his  newly 
acquired  gift.  He  conducted  him  to  the  Abbess  Hilda,  and  she 
in  turn  made  him  repeat  his  verses  before  many  learned  men. 
On  hearing  them  they  all  concluded  that  he  had  received  the 
grace  from  the  Lord.  They  further  went  on  to  explain  to  him 
some  passage  from  holy  writ,  either  historical  or  doctrinal,  and 
bade  him,  if  he  could,  to  transpose  it  into  verse.  He  thereupon 
went  away,  and  next  morning  returned  with  it  duly  converted  into 
excellent  verse.     Therefore  the  Abbess,  recognising  God's  grace 


264  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

in  the  man,  counselled  him  to  abandon  his  secular  dress  and  to 
adopt  the  calling  of  a  monk.  Having  done  so,  he  joined  the 
rest  of  the  brethren  in  her  monastery,  and  she  ordered  that  he 
should  be  taught  the  whole  series  of  sacred  history.  "  Thus," 
says  Bede,  using  one  of  his  odd  similes,  "  keeping  all  he  learnt 
in  his  mind,  and  ruminating  like  an  animal  {(juasi  mundum 
anifnal,  ru7ni?iando\  he  turned  it  into  sweetest  verse  {in  carmen 
dulcissimiwi)  and  repeated  it  harmoniously  to  the  doctors  his 
hearers."  ^ 

Bede  has  little  else  to  tell  us  about  the  life  of  Caedmon,  and 
merely  praises  in  a  rhetorical  sentence  his  goodness,  zeal,  and 
attention  to  regular  discipline.  He  concludes  his  account  of 
him,  however,  with  a  notice  of  his  death,  which  has  been  very 
naturally  praised  for  its  simplicity  and  beauty.  "When  the  time 
of  his  departure  arrived,"  he  says,  "  he  suffered  for  fourteen  days 
under  a  bodily  infirmity,  yet  so  moderate  that  he  could  walk 
and  talk  the  whole  time.  Close  by  was  the  house  into  which 
those  who  were  ill  and  likely  to  die  were  carried.  There,  on 
the  night  when  he  died,  he  bade  his  attendant  prepare  a  place 
for  him  to  rest  in.  The  servant,  who  wondered  at  the  request 
(for  there  were  no  signs  that  the  end  was  so  near),  nevertheless 
did  as  he  was  bidden.  He  was  accordingly  placed  there,  and  con- 
tinued to  speak  in  a  joyful  and  joking  mood  with  those  about  him. 
When  midnight  arrived  he  asked  them  if  they  had  the  Eucharist 
within  (he  doubtless  meant  whether  it  was  reserved  in  the 
infirmary).  They  asked  him  what  need  he  had  of  the  Eucharist, 
since  he  talked  to  them  so  joyfully,  as  if  he  were  in  perfect 
health.  He  nevertheless  pressed  them  to  bring  it  to  him.^ 
When  he  had  received  it  into  his  hand,  he  asked  if  they  were  all 
in  charity  with  him  and  had  no  ill-will  towards  him.     They  all 

'  Bede,  H.E.,  iv.  24. 

^  The  Rev.  J.  Stevenson,  in  reference  to  this  passage  of  Bede,  argues  that  at 
this  time  it  was  not  the  universal  practice  for  the  communicant  to  receive  the 
sacrament  directly  from  the  hand  of  the  priest,  but  that  on  sudden  emergencies 
it  might  be  transmitted  by  the  hands  of  another,  and  he  cites  in  support  the 
Articles  of  Inquiry  cited  by  Hincmar  of  Rheims,  one  of  which  is  *'  Does  the 
priest  himself  visit  the  sick  and  anoint  them  with  the  holy  oil  and  himself  give 
them  the  Holy  Communion,  or  does  he  do  this  by  another,  and  does  he  himself 
give  the  Communion  to  the  people,  or  does  he  give  the  Communion  to  some 
lay  person  to  carry  to  his  house  for  the  use  of  the  sick  "  (see  Labbe,  Conc.^  viii. 
573)-  Stevenson  also  cites  Ratherius,  Bishop  of  Verona  and  Regino,  in  the 
same  behalf.  It  is  also  plain  from  Bede's  account  that  at  this  time  the  com- 
municant was  permitted  to  receive  the  consecrated  bread  into  his  hand,  while  in 
later  times  the  custom  arose  of  putting  the  consecrated  wafer  into  his  mouth. 


APPENDIX  III  265 

replied  they  were  so,  and  asked  in  return  if  he  felt  kindly  to  them 
all.  '  My  brethren,'  he  said,  '  I  am  in  charity  with  you  and  all 
God's  servants';  and  thus  strengthening  himself  with  the 
heavenly  viaticum  he  prepared  himself  to  enter  into  another 
life.  He  then  asked  how  long  it  would  be  before  the  brethren 
would  rise  to  say  their  nones  {fioctur?iae),  and  when  they  said  it 
was  not  far  off,  he  replied  that  it  was  well  and  that  he  would 
wait  till  that  hour.  Then,  signing  himself  with  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  he  laid  his  head  on  his  pillow,  and  falling  into  a  gentle 
slumber  he  ended  his  life  in  silence.  Thus,"  says  Bede,  "his 
tongue,  which  had  uttered  so  many  words  in  praise  of  the  Creator, 
uttered  its  last  words  while  he  was  signing  himself  with  the  cross 
and  recommending  his  spirit  into  the  hands  of  God."  ^ 

Caedmon  is  supposed  to  have  died  in  the  year  680.  He  was 
buried  in  the  monastery  at  Whitby,  and  there,  according  to 
William  of  Malmesbury,  his  bones  were  discovered  in  the  twelfth 
century  with  those  of  other  saints.  "  Inve?ita  sunt  noviter^  id  est 
ante  initium  seculi  xii  .  .  .  sanctorum  corpora  Trumwini  episcopi ; 
Oswii  regis  et  Aelfledae  filiae  ejus  /  .  .  .  necnon  et  illius  monachi 
quern  divino  ??iuneri  scientia?n  cantus  accepisse  Beda  refertT  ^ 

Ccxdmon's  name  appears  in  the  Anglo-Roman  calendar  in 
some  examples  on  the  loth  and  in  others  on  the  nth  February. 
There  is  no  known  authority  for  either  date. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  question  of  his  personality  and  works, 
which  have  aroused  a  good  deal  of  ingenious  and  much  futile 
speculation  in  modern  times. 

One  of  the  acutest  and  most  informing  historians  of  this 
period  of  our  history,  Sir  Francis  Palgrave,  who  was  a  Jew  by 
origin  and  was  inspired  sometimes  by  the  imaginative  fancy  of 
his  race,  altogether  questioned  the  fact  of  Caedmon  having  been 
a  possible  name  for  an  Englishman,  and  argued  that  it  was  in 
fact  a  kind  of  symbolical  name.  He  says  that  "the  name 
Caedmon  has  no  meaning  in  the  Anglian  tongue,  adding  that  the 
Jews  name  Genesis  from  its  first  word  b.  Rashid  (in  the  begin- 
ning). This,  Onkelos  the  Aramaic  translator,  translates  by 
Cadmin,  meaning  the  same  thing,  and  when  the  Anglo-Saxon 
poet  translated  Genesis  they  called  him  Caedmon  or  Cadmon 
instead  of  Cadmin.  Inasmuch  as  the  Culdees,  who  were  the 
masters  of  the  monks  of  Streaneshealh,  derived  their  ritual  and 
their  theology  from  Jerusalem  and  Egypt  instead  of  Rome,  this 
accounts  for  the  whole  thing." 

^  Bede,  iv.  24.  "^  G.T.,  iii.  116. 


2  66  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

It  would  be  difficult  to  match  tliis  sample  of  perversity. 
That  a  country  boy  in  Northumberland  with  a  gift  for  poetry 
should  have  had  among  the  simple  monks  at  Whitby  teachers 
who  could  point  out  to  him  not  only  the  Jewish  name  for 
Genesis,  but  also  the  Aramaic  one,  and  that  Bede  should  have 
been  misled  into  giving,  by  mistake,  to  a  monk  (who  must  have 
been  more  than  usually  well  known)  the  name  for  Genesis,  is 
really  fantastic,  and  is  completely  answered  by  the  fact  pointed 
out  by  Wiilker  that  Csedmon  or  Cadmon,  instead  of  being  an 
unknown  Anglian  name,  was  in  fact  a  well-known  one.  As  he 
says  :  "  Da  sich  der  Eigenname  C3edmon  ( =  nauta,  oder  pirata) 
erklaren  lasst  fallt  auch  damit  der  unglaublice  zweite  Teil  von 
Palgrave's  aufstellung." 

While  Palgrave  was  alone  in  doubting  the  English  name  and 
personality  of  Caedmon,  quite  an  army  of  critics  has  busied  itself 
with  the  intricate  questions  surrounding  his  works,  some  having 
even  suggested  that  he  was  little  more  than  a  name,  and  that  the 
works  attributed  to  him  really  belong  to  others.  This  conclusion 
has  chiefly  been  the  outcome  of  the  perverse  subjective  methods 
of  German  criticism. 

The  first  thing  to  remember  in  the  discussion  (a  fact  which 
was  much  overlooked  by  the  earlier  writers),  is  that  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eighth  century  there  were  two  distinct  dialects, 
which  might  be  almost  called  languages,  spoken  by  the  English : 
one,  the  tongue  of  the  Northumbrians,  and  the  other  spoken  by 
the  people  south  of  the  Humber  and  the  Lune. 

Secondly,  so  far  as  we  have  evidence,  there  was  no  literary  work 
composed  in  the  vernacular  of  Southern  England  until  much  later 
times;  such  work  in  the  earlier  time  was  confined  to  Northumbria. 
On  this  point  an  excellent  authority  speaks  plainly :  "  It  is  a  remark- 
able fact,"  says  Professor  Horstman,  "  that  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  is 
almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  North  of  England,  and  to  the 
ancient  kingdom  of  Northumbria.  .  .  .  Here,  in  674,  Benedict 
Biscop  founded  the  monasteries  of  Wearmouth  and  Jarrow,  where 
Beda  (d.  735)  wrote ;  in  the  school  of  York,  founded  by  Beda's 
friend  Egbert,  Alcuin  taught ;  at  Whitby  under  Abbess  Hilda  lived 
Caedmon  the  poet ;  and  Cynewulf  was  a  Northumbrian."  ^  It  is 
perfectly  plain  in  fact  that  Caedmon,  who  was  a  Northumbrian  of 
humble  birth,  must  have  spoken  and  written  in  the  Northumbrian 
speech.  Now  it  happens  that  although  Northumbria  was  no 
doubt  the  part  of  Er/gland  where  almost  alone  in  early  Saxon 
'  Richard  Kolle  of  Hampo/e,  p.  vi. 


APPENDIX  III  267 

times  the  vernacular  literature  flourished,  we  have  scarcely  any 
remains  of  it  extant  in  its  original  form  and  dialect.  This  is  a 
real  measure  of  the  devastation  which  overwhelmed  all  culture 
there,  when  its  monasteries  and  other  religious  establishments  were 
destroyed  by  the  Danes.  We  cannot  expect  therefore  to  find  any 
considerable  poem  of  C?edmon  in  the  form  in  which  he  wrote 
it.  We  are  not,  however,  without  some  samples.  In  the  most 
important  MS.  of  Bede  (probably,  says  Hardy,  written  in  his  life- 
time), which  is  known  as  Bishop  Moore's  MS.,  and  is  preserved 
in  the  public  library  at  Cambridge,  where  it  is  numbered  K.K.  16, 
fol.  128  v.,  there  is  an  entry  in  the  margin  in  a  hand  differing 
from,  but  nearly  contemporary  with,  the  one  in  which  the  bulk  of 
the  MS.  was  written,  which  is  known  as  Ccedmon's  hymn,  and  is 
written  in  the  Northumbrian  dialect.  The  same  exordium  occurs 
in  a  West  Saxon  form  in  other  MSS.  of  Bede  and  is  also  entered 
in  the  margin.  It  is  quoted  by  Bede  as  representing  the  Divine 
hymn  which  was  heard  by  Csedmon. 

As  Mr.  Plummer  says,  the  Northumbrian  version  is  much 
older  than  the  other,  and  being  Northumbrian  is  more  likely 
to  represent  what  Caedmon  actually  sang  than  any  other, 
and  as  it  is  extant  in  a  MS.  not  much  later  than  the  death 
of  Bede,  this  Northumbrian  version  must  represent  what  was 
believed  in  his  time  to  be  a  genuine  work  of  Caedmon.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  if  it  was  composed  by  Caedmon,  the 
Northumbrian  version  must  be  the  original  form,  and  the  West 
Saxon  one  must  be  a  later  translation.  Its  genuineness  has 
been  defended  by  Wanley,  Bouterwek,  Ettmiiller,  Stephens, 
Hammerich,  Grein,  Ten  Brink,  Zupitza,  Wiilker,  and  Sarrasin. 
Wiilker  says  of  it :  "  Ich  .  .  .  sehe  in  der  Nordhumbrischen 
Fassung  des  Hymnus  den  Text,  welcher  in  8  jahrhundert  als 
derjenige  gait  welchen  Caedmon  am  Beginne  seiner  Dichter- 
laufbahn  dichtete."^  Sarrasin,  writing  in  1913,  says:  "Die 
Sprache  des  Kadmonischen  Hymnus  dessen  Echtheit  jetzt  wohl 
nicht  mehr  bestritten  wird."^ 

It  will  be  interesting  to  give  the  words  of  this  hymn,  inas- 
much as  they  form  the  very  first  composition  in  any  kind 
of  English  that  is  extant.  The  only  suggestion  that  has  been 
made  on  the  other  side  is  that  the  lines  in  question  are 
a  retranslation  into  Northumbrian  English  of  the  southern 
version    of   the   hymn.     Apart  from  its  a  priori  improbability, 

*  "  Grundriss  zur  Gesch.  der  Angelsachsischen  Lileratur,"  p.  120. 
^  Von  Kaedmon  bis  Kynewulf,  17. 


268  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

this  is  ridiculous,  since  it  occurs  in  a  marginal  note  of  an 
eighth-century  MS.  in  a  writing  much  earlier  than  the  southern 
version.     The  hymn  is  as  follows  : — 

Northumbrian  Edition.  Wessex  Edition. 

Nu  scylun  heigan  Nu  we  sculon  herian 

hebren  ricces  uard  heofonrices  we[ard] 

metudces  mcecti  metoddes  mihte 

end  his  modgidane  and  hi[s]  modgepane 

uere  uuldur  fadur  weore  wu[l]dor  feder 

sue  he  uundra  gihuaes  swa  he  wu[n]dra  gehwile 

eci  drictin  ece  drih[ten] 

or  astelidse  word  astealde 

he  jerist  scop  he  gerest  gescop 

ffilda  barnum  ylda  [bearjnum 

heben  til  hrofe  heofen  to  rofe 

haleg  scepen  [halig]  scippend 

tha  middun  geard  middan  ear[de] 

moncynn^s  uard  mann  cynnes  weard 

eci  dryctin  ece  drihten 

sefter  tiada,  aefter  tid[a] 

firum  fol'du  fyrum  on  foldum 

frea  allmectig.^  frea  ealmihti.^ 

We  will  now  give  the  verse  in  translation  :— 

Now  must  we  praise 

the  Guardian  of  Heaven's  kingdom, 

the  Creator's  might, 

and  his  mind's  thought. 

Glorious  Father  of  men, 

as  of  every  wonder.     He, 

Lord  Eternal, 

formed  the  beginning. 

He  first  framed 

for  the  children  of  earth 

the  heaven  as  a  roof ; 

Holy  Creator 

then  mid  earth. 

The  Guardian  of  mankind, 

the  eternal  Lord, 

afterwards  produced 

the  earth  for  men, 

Lord  Almighty. 2 

This  hymn  is  not  the  only  fragment  of  Northumbrian  poetry 
which  has  been  attributed  to  Caedmon's  own  pen.     Among  the 

*  Plummer's  Bede^  ii.  251,  252. 

^  Thorpe's  CceJmon,  xxii.  and  xxiii.,  and  Bede's  paraphrase  as  given  above. 


APPENDIX  III  269 

finest  monuments  dating  from  Anglo-Saxon  times  is  the  Ruthwell 
cross,  which  will  occupy  us  again  presently.  It  is  now  i)reserved 
in  the  church  at  Ruthwell,  near  Annan,  in  Dumfriesshire.  As 
we  shall  see,  it  almost  certainly  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century.  On  this  great  cross  there  are  sculptured  a 
number  of  fragments  of  a  poem  written  in  runic  characters. 
This  cross  and  the  inscription  on  it  have  given  rise  to  many 
polemics.  I  will  abstract  the  story,  which  is  interesting  and 
instructive,  from  Professor  Stephens's  great  work  on  runic 
inscriptions. 

The  first  person  to  publish  an  engraving  of  the  stone  was 
Hickes,  in  his  Thesaurus,  in  which  he  figured  the  four  sides  ;  this 
was  in  1703.  He  made  no  comment  on  it.  In  1722  Gordon 
published  figures  of  the  two  sides  containing  runic  inscriptions. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  next  century  Dr.  Duncan,  who  re-erected 
the  cross,  also  copied  the  four  sides  for  the  use  of  the  Icelandic 
scholar  Repp,  who  wrote  a  treatise  on  it  and  was  the  first  to 
attempt  a  translation  of  it.  The  cross  was  again  published  in 
the  Vetusta  Mo?iu?nefita,  vol.  ii.  plates  54  and  55.  G.  J.  Thorkelin 
the  Icelandic  antiquary,  visited  England  in  1786,  and  obtained 
a  copy  of  the  plates  in  the  Vetusta  Afonumenta,  which  he  pre- 
sented to  his  countryman.  Fin  Magnussen,  who  wrote  the  first 
professedly  scientific  memoir  upon  the  stone,  entitled  0??i  obelisken 
i  Ruthwell.     This  was  in  1837. 

The    memoirs    of  Repp    and    Magnussen    were    excellent 
examples  of  the  futility  of  attempting  an  interpretation  of  English 
runic  inscriptions  by  men  who  do  not  know  our  Early  Eni^lish 
tongue,  however  well  they  know  German  or  Scandinavian.     Of 
their  version,  says    Stephens,  the  less  said    the    better.     Their 
ingenious  authors  were  entirely  out  of  the  track.     Both  invented 
a    new  language  in  which  the  words  were  said  or  made  to  be 
written,  some  kind  of  bastard  Pictish.     Repp  asserted  that  the 
monument  recorded  the  gift  of  a  font  (which,  according  to  him, 
the  runes  call  a  Clirist-bason)  and  of  certain  cows  and  lands  in 
Ashlafardhal  (a  place   which    never   existed)  by  the    monks    of 
Therfuse   (a   monastery  never  heard  of).      Magnussen  "makes 
it  to  be  the  record  of  Ashlof  s  marriage  settlements,  adding  all 
sorts  of  wild  and  absurd  statements,  the  whole  amid  a  cloud 
of   misplaced   erudition.     The  fact  was,  that  neither   of  these 
gentlemen  knew  Old  English,  the  language  of  the  pillar  which 
they  were  studying."^ 

^  Stephens,  i.  409,  410. 


2  70  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

The  first  person  to  attack  the  inscriptions  successfully  was 
Kemble,  our  own  great  Saxon  scholar,  to  whom  the  obligations  of 
English  scholarship  have  never  been  sufficiently  acknowledged. 
In  his  famous  paper  on  the  runes  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  published 
in  1840,  he,  inter  alia,  translated  the  runic  writing  on  the  Ruthwell 
cross,  which  he  showed  was  a  Christian  memorial  and  that  the 
letters  formed  twenty  lines,  more  or  less  complete,  of  a  poem  on 
the  Holy  Rood,  i.e.  the  Cross  of  Christ,  in  old  North  English 
(commonly  called  Old  Northumbrian).  It  is  pleasant  to  think 
that  Fin  Magnussen  was  the  first  to  announce  that  Kemble  was 
right  and  that  he  himself  had  been  wrong.  Kemble  did  not  assign 
the  lines  to  any  particular  poet,  nor  had  he  a  complete  copy  of 
the  runes  before  him. 

The  next  step  that  was  taken  in  clearing  the  story  was  when 
in  1856  the  late  Rev.  Daniel  Haigh,  in  a  paper  printed  in  the 
Archaeologia  Aeliana  (Nov.  1856,  pp.  149-195)  on  the  Saxon 
cross  at  Bewcastle,  made  the  happy  conjecture  that  the  Ruthwell 
cross  was  erected  about  the  year  665  and  contained  fragments 
of  a  religious  poem  of  very  high  character,  and  that  there  was 
only  one  man  living  in  England  at  the  time  worthy  to  be  named 
as  a  religious  poet,  and  that  was  Csedmon.^ 

In  1 86 1  the  same  writer  wrote  his  Conquest  of  Britain. 
In  this  he  says  of  the  poem  we  are  discussing :  "  It  was 
probably  one  of  those  which  Csedmon,  who  was  living  at  the 
time  when  these  monuments  {i.e.  the  Bewcastle  and  Ruthwell 
crosses)  were  erected,  composed,"  adding :  "  That  they  belong 
to  the  seventh  century  cannot  be  doubted ;  they  contain  forms 
of  the  language  which  are  evidently  earlier  even  than  those  which 
occur  in  the  contemporary  version  of  Bseda's  verses  in  a  MS.  at 
St.  Gallen,  and  the  copy  of  Csedmon's  first  song  at  the  end  of 
the  Hist.  Eccl.^  which  was  completed  two  years  after  its  author's 
death."  2 

Stephens  says  of  this  suggestion  of  Haigh's  :  "  This  splendid 
and  daring  assumption  in  implication  has  now  been  proved  by 
the  stone  itself."  And  may  I  add,  proved  by  the  equally  potent 
skill  of  Professor  Stephens  himself. 

He  was  the  first  who  gave  a  really  correct  copy  of  the  entire 
inscriptions  from  careful  rubbings  and  tracings  that  he  had 
received  from  Mr.  Maughan  and  Father  Haigh.  He  was  thus  able 
to  give  for  the  first  time  what  was  most  important,  namely,  a 
correct  reading  of  the  inscription  on  the  top  stone  of  the  cross — 
1  Op.  cit,  173.  2  Qp^  ^ii^  29. 


APPENDIX   III  271 

a  very  critical  part  of  the  monument,  and  which  had  been 
strangely  overlooked.  It  then  became  clear  that  the  figure  of  a 
man  which  occu[)ied  one  side  of  it  was  that  of  St.  John,  with 
an  inscription  in  Latin  letters  plainly  reading  "  In  princ  .  .  . 
verbum  .  .  .,"  which  is  a  fragment  of  the  opening  passage  of 
St.  John's  Gospel.  On  the  other  was  the  eagle  of  the  same 
Evangelist,  with  the  words,  "Cadmon  maefaucej^o,"  being, 
says  Stephens,  "a  bind-rune."  "In  regard  to  this  reading," 
he  says,  "there  is  no  doubt,  and  all  are  agreed."^  The  word, 
says  Stephens,  is  a  form  oi  faked,  fadi^^ed^fawed,  fayed,  medimng 
composed,  made.^  Elsewhere  he  says  that  it  is  a  form  of  the 
verb  which  King  Alfred  uses  in  the  sense  of  composing  a  song, 
namely,  ged  gefegean.^  Stephens's  reading  has  been  adopted  as 
unquestionable  by  a  second  English  scholar  highly  skilled  in 
reading  our  runes,  namely.  Bishop  Browne. 

From  the  concurrence  of  evidences  here  adduced,  Stephens 
concluded,  and  I  think  unanswerably,  that  the  poem  on  the 
stone  was  in  fact  composed  by  Caedmon,  the  protege  of  St. 
Hilda.  This  conclusion  is  a  perfectly  simple  and  complete 
explanation  of  the  facts,  but  it  would  not  satisfy  those  who 
cannot  tolerate  simple  explanations  but  are  always  in  search  of 
intricate  ones,  and  who  are  always  finding  what  they  search  for, 
namely,  mare's  nests.  It  could  not  be  disputed  that  the  name 
on  the  cross  was  Caedmon,  as  attested  by  two  of  the  most 
competent  authorities  on  our  English  runes,  and  that  it  was 
associated  on  the  cross  with  just  such  a  poem  as  our  Caedmon 
would  have  written,  and  was  composed  in  the  language  he  spoke 
and  at  the  time  he  lived.  All  this  went  for  nothing  with  these 
transcendental  spinners  of  cobwebs.  They  would  have  it  that 
the  name  (an  uncommon  one)  was  that  of  the  carver  of  the  stone 
and  not  the  author  of  the  poem,  a  conclusion  as  arbitrary  as 
anything  could  be,  and  entirely  based  on  subjective  speculations 
and  not  on  any  valid  induction.  The  association  on  a  cross  of 
the  early  seventh  century  of  Caedmon's  name  with  a  poem  which 
was  precisely  the  kind  of  poem  he  would  have  written  in  the  very 
dialect  he  spoke  is  conclusive  to  me,  as  it  was  to  Mr.  Haigh,  Dr. 
Stephens,  and  Bishop  Browne.  The  hymn  on  the  margin  of  the 
Moore  MS.  and  the  poem  on  the  Ruthwell  cross  are  the  only 
remains  of  Ccedmon's  verse  which  are  extant  in  their  original 
form  and  language. 

It  is  not  surprising,  however,  that  in  the  time  of  Alfred  and 
^  Stephens,  op.  cit,  i.  419.  ^  Op.  cit.  ii.  920.  ^  Op.  cit.  i.  419. 


2/2   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

later,  and  when  so  much  of  the  earlier  poetry  of  the  North 
and  East  of  England  which  had  survived  the  Danish  destruction 
was  translated  into  another  dialect,  the  poems  of  Csedmon 
should  fill  a  notable  place,  for,  apart  from  their  merit,  Bede  had 
given  them  a  special  prestige. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  what  we  know  of  these  translations.  Mr. 
Stopford  Brooke  has  given  an  interesting  account  of  one  of  them. 
He  says  Archbishop  Ussher,  hunting  in  England  for  books  and 
manuscripts  with  which  to  enrich  the  library  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  found  a  manuscript  and  gave  it  to  Francis  Dujon,  a 
scholar  of  Leyden,  who  is  known  in  literature  as  Junius.  He 
was  then  librarian  to  Lord  Arundel,  and  when  he  left  for  the 
Continent  in  1650  he  took  care  to  have  the  MS.  printed  at 
Amsterdam.  He  published  it  as  the  work  of  Caedmon,  having 
come  to  the  conclusion  on  the  ground  of  the  substantial  agree- 
ment between  the  first  lines  of  the  MS.  and  the  Latin  abstract 
which  Bede  made  of  the  verse  that  it  was  the  song  which 
Csedmon  had  sung  in  his  dreams.  He  afterwards  brought  it 
back  to  England,  where  it  eventually  found  a  home  at  the 
Bodleian.  Mr.  Stopford  Brooke  claims  that  not  improbably  he 
showed  the  book  to  Milton,  who  was  familiar  with  Bede's 
writings,  and  that  Milton  in  fact  had  the  book  before  him  when 
composing  Paradise  Lost?- 

The  book  is  a  small  folio  of  229  pages.  The  first  212  pages 
are  written  in  a  fair  hand,  apparently  of  the  tenth  century,  while 
the  other  1 7  pages  formed  a  second  book,  written  in  an  inferior 
handwriting  and  a  less  grammatical  style  and  more  inaccurate 
orthography.  The  earlier  part  of  the  MS.  down  to  p.  212 
consists  of  a  paraphrase  of  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of 
the  Apocrypha,  comprising  Genesis,  Exodus,  Daniel,  and  the 
prayer  of  Azariah,  and  is  written  in  a  good  handwriting  with 
rude  pictures ;  and  the  second,  in  a  more  modern  handwriting, 
includes  verses  on  the  fall  of  the  rebel  Angels,  the  Harrowing 
of  Hell,  the  Resurrection  and  the  Ascension,  Pentecost,  the 
Last  Judgment,  and  the  Temptation.^ 

Now  it  is  clear  that  not  only  does  the  exordium  of  the  poem 
in  the  Bodleian  book  agree  with  the  portion  preserved  in  the 
margin  of  Moore's  MS.  of  Bede,  except  that  it  is  written  in 
another  dialect,  but  that  the  rest  of  it  answers  very  closely  to 
the  subject-matter  of  Csedmon's  complete  poems  as  described 

^  See  Brooke,  History  of  Early  English  Poetry,  ii.  69  and  70. 
2  Brooke,  op.  cii.  ii.  67  and  68. 


APPENDIX  III  273 

by  Bede.  Thus,  Bede  says  that  in  his  first  poem  he  first  sang 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostles ;  he  also  sang  many  songs  of 
the  terror  of  the  future  judgment  and  of  the  horror  of  the  pains 
of  hell  {poe?tae  gehennalis)  and  the  delights  of  the  heavenly 
kingdom,  and  also  many  more  about  the  divine  benefits  and 
judgments,  in  all  of  which  he  tried  to  turn  men's  minds  from 
the  love  of  vice,  and  to  induce  them  to  the  love  of  what  was 
good  and  to  application  to  good  actions.^ 

This  description  of  Caedmon's  works  is  clear  enough, 
and  it  will  be  remembered  that  it  was  written  by  a  singularly 
clear-headed  historian  who  was  virtually  a  contemporary,  and 
was  living  when  the  full  glow  of  the  poet's  fame  was  still 
alive,  and  when  there  must  have  been  a  large  number  of 
people  living  who  had  known  him  in  the  flesh  and  were 
quite  competent  to  inform  him  of  the  true  facts  of  the 
case.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  all  the  editors  of 
these  poems  from  the  time  of  Junius,  e.g.  Thorpe,  Bouterwek, 
and  Grein,  have  agreed  in  attributing  them  to  Ccedmon. 
Some  of  the  critics,  however,  have  argued  differently,  and 
a  notable  one  lived  as  long  ago  as  the  seventeenth  century. 
This  was  Hickes,  in  his  Thesaurus,  i.  133.  He  urged  that 
the  language  was  not  that  of  Caedmon,  in  which  he  showed 
considerable  acumen,  for  it  is  now  clear  that,  as  in  the  case  of 
much  other  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  the  language  of  the  Bodleian 
book  (which  is  in  the  Wessex  dialect)  was  not  the  language  of  a 
Northumbrian  poet,  but  of  a  tenth-century  translator.  This 
does  not,  however,  affect  the  question  that  the  substance  of 
the  poems  in  the  book  was  the  work  of  Csedmon,  nor  that  the 
translator  sometimes  paraphrased  his  text  and  sometimes  also 
interpolated  it.  The  subjective  method  of  analysis  by  which  only 
the  best  parts  of  a  poem  are  attributed  to  the  master  while 
the  poorer  ones  are  ascribed  to  a  weaker  hand  seems  to  be 
most  misleading.  Poets  of  all  men  are  most  apt  to  be  unequal. 
Two  very  typical  instances  are  Wordsworth  and  Keats.  In  one 
case  only  do  I  think  the  existence  of  a  really  important  inter- 
polation has  been  proved  in  the  poems  we  are  discussing, 
namely,  in  that  on  Genesis,  where  Sievers  seems  to  have  clearly 
shown  that  the  portion  of  the  poem  from  line  234  to  line 
852,  which  has  been  referred  to  as  "Genesis  B,"  and  contains  a 
second  account  of  the  Fall  of  man,  has  been  taken  from  another 
version  of  that  story  as  paraphrased  in  some  other  similar  poem 

^  Bede,  H.E.,  iv.  24. 
VOL.  III. — 18 


274  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

written  by  another  poet.  It  differs  from  the  rest  in  metre, 
manner,  style,  and  language.  This  may  well  be.  Sievers's 
further  argument  about  this  interpolated  part  has  not  received 
the  assent  of  other  writers.  He  claims  that  it  resembles  in  style, 
language,  etc.,  that  of  a  part  of  the  famous  Old  Saxon  poem 
known  as  the  Heliand,  and  that,  like  it,  it  contains  evidence  that 
it  was  partly  dependent  on  a  Latin  poet  of  the  fifth  century.  He 
therefore  claims  that  the  interpolated  section  in  the  Bodleian 
book  was  originally  written  in  Old  Saxon  by  the  author  of  the 
Heliand.  To  this  view  Wiilker  demurs.  He  says  :  "  Wahrend 
niemand  die  Richtigkeit  der  scharfsinnigen  Entdeckung  eines 
engen  Zusammen-hanges  von  B  mit  der  altsachsischen  Dichtung 
deren  Wort  und  Formelschatz  wir  allerdings  nur  nach  dem 
Heliand  beurteilen  konnen,  in  Abrede  stellen  wird,  und  gar  keine 
zwingenden  Beweis  gegeben,  dass  B  nun  gerade  eine  Dichtung 
vom  Verfasser  des  Heliands  sein  miisse.  Sievers  selbst  bringt 
S.  2  2  grunde  vor,  welche  dagegen  sprechen.  Aber  allerdings 
wenn  B  nicht  vom  Heliand-Dichter  geschrieben  ist,  dann  biisst 
die  Abhandlung  von  Sievers  einen  in  Teil  ihres  interesses  ein."  ^ 
The  fact  is,  that  there  is  the  greatest  uncertainty  about  the 
date  of  the  Heliand.  The  preface  upon  which  some  have  relied 
for  an  early  date  for  it,  which  is  alone  consistent  with  Sievers's 
theory,  does  not  occur  with  the  text  of  the  work  in  the  two  MSS., 
and  was  first  published  by  Flacius  Illyricus  in  1562,  and  his  MS. 
cannot  be  traced.  It  has  been  with  probability  considered  a 
forgery  of  Flacius.  This  was  the  view  held  by  Schulte,  writing 
in  1873,  and  its  contents  suggest  the  conclusion,  for  they  refer 
to  the  poet  in  language  which  is  only  an  echo  of  that  applied  by 
Bede  to  Csedmon.  Sievers's  reply  was  based  on  one  trifling  point 
only,  which  is  entirely  outweighed  by  a  mass  of  other  evidence. 
It  depends  on  a  use  of  a  certain  word  at  a  certain  date  in  those 
early  times,  which  is  very  dangerous  to  base  a  far-reaching  induction 
upon,  when  we  remember  how  very  scanty  the  documents  of  that 
time  are.  The  preface  in  question  makes  the  poet  of  the  Heliand 
a  mere  inspired  rude  peasant,  but  inasmuch  as  he  has  clearly 
made  use  of  the  works  of  Bede  he  must  have  known  Latin. 
This  most  dubious  document,  be  it  noted,  is  the  only  authority 
for  dating  the  Heliand  so  early  as  the  reign  of  Louis  i.,  a 
date  otherwise  improbable,  since  the  Saxons  had  then  been 
so  recently  converted  to  Christianity  that  it  is  hardly  likely  the 
poem  could  have  been  written  in  his  time.  The  oldest  MS., 
1  Wiilker,  op.  cit.  127  and  128,  note  3. 


APPENDIX   III  275 

I  believe,  dates  from  late  in  the  tenth  century,  and  I  should  be 
disposed  to  put  its  composition  about  that  time,  and  to  conclude 
that  it  is  much  more  likely  that  it  was  a  translation  from  English 
than  that  the  English  poems  in  the  Bodleian  book  were  derived 
from  it  or  some  other  Old  Saxon  original.  It  is  not  improbable 
in  regard  to  the  larger  part  of  it,  namely,  the  Genesis,  that  it  was 
taken  from  two  English  poems  on  the  subject,  for  there  is  certainly 
a  duplication  of  part  of  the  narrative,  and  that  only  the  earlier  part 
of  it,  together  with  the  conclusion,  was  taken  from  the  Wessex 
version  of  Caedmon's  Northumbrian  paraphrase.  Who  wrote  the 
middle  part,  which  differs  much  in  style  and  other  respects  from 
the  rest,  we  do  not  know. 

The  Exodus  section,  it  is  generally  agreed,  is  by  one  author 
and  not  a  compilation,  and  there  is  no  good  reason  for  attri- 
buting it  in  its  original  form  to  any  one  but  Caedmon,  and  so  also 
with  the  Daniel  and  the  prayer  of  Azariah,  all  of  which  answer  to 
Bede's  description  of  Csedmon's  work.  The  same  applies  to  the 
fragmentary  poem  forming  the  second  part  of  the  Bodleian  MS.  and 
relating  to  the  harrowing  of  hell,  etc.     Let  us  now  turn  elsewhere. 

In  1833  Professor  Bluhme  found  a  MS.  (a  half-ruined  skin, 
says  Stephens)  written  in  the  Southern  or  Wessex  dialect  of  Old 
English,  and  which  had  been  preserved  in  the  Conventual  Library 
of  Vercelli  in  north  Italy.  This  was  published  about  the  years  1836 
or  1837  (Appendix  B  to  Cooper's  Report  on  the  Fcedera)^  and  was 
admirably  edited  by  Thorpe.  Among  its  contents  was  a  poem, 
entitled  by  Thorpe  "  The  Holy  Rood — A  Dream,"  and  consisting 
of  314  lines.  It  describes  the  vision  of  the  Cross  as  it  appeared  to 
a  pious  sleeper,  and  gives  the  beautiful  and  sublime  address  of  the 
Cross  itself,  picturing  the  Passion  of  the  Saviour.  This  poem 
was  seen  by  Mr.  Kemble,  who  recognised  that  certain  of  its  lines 
were  the  counterpart  of  those  he  had  found  in  the  Rood  poem 
on  the  cross  at  Ruthwell.  This  conclusion  he  published  in  the 
ArchcEologia  for  1843.  So  exact  had  been  his  text  and  version, 
says  Stephens,  that  the  discovery  of  this  MS.  copy  only  left  him  to 
correct  three  letters.^  The  result  of  Kemble's  discovery  was  the 
conclusion  that  the  poem  in  the  Vercelli  MS.  was  in  substance 
a  work  of  the  seventh  century,  originally  written  in  the  North- 
umbrian speech,  and  afterwards  translated  into  West  Saxon. 2 
Stephens,  speaking  of  this  transformation  in  the  case  of  the  Rood 
poem,  says :  "  The  whole  lay  is  now  extant  only  in  the  orthodox 
South  English,  a  Wessex  or  Book  or  Court-dialect  into  which 
^  Op.  cit.  i.  410.  2  Stephens,  i.  410. 


276  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

everything  was  transcribed  in  the  later  times  previous  to  the 
Norman  period.  But  we  are  now  famiHar  with  this  operation.  It 
deceives  no  one.  And  even  still  we  can  often  perceive  in  these 
South  English  transcripts,  peculiarities  distinctive  of  far  older 
texts,  or  distinct  '  shire '  speeches,  sometimes  of  a  clearly  North 
English  original  from  which  the  scribe  was  making  his  '  amended  ' 
'  Lindley-Murray '-ised  and  more  or  less  interpolated  copy.''^ 

In  1865  Professor  Dietrich  published  a  memoir  at  Marburg  on 
the  cross  at  Ruthwell,  and  the  poem  upon  it,  in  which  he  claimed 
to  show  that  the  latter  coincided  with  the  Vercelli  Rood  poem.  He 
had,  in  fact  (as  learned  Germans  too  often  do  in  the  case  of  English 
work),  overlooked  Kemble's  splendid  monograph  on  the  subject 
published  twenty-two  years  before,  in  which  that  conclusion  had 
been  proved.  This  he  in  fact  presently  acknowledged  in  a  later 
review  of  Kemble's  work.^  He  assigned  the  poem  to  Cynewulf, 
Bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  737-780,  who  died  in  782,  but,  as  Stephens 
says,  the  lay  is  a  century  older,  as  the  stone  itself  shows.  Dietrich 
did  not  know  of  the  conclusive  fact  established  by  the  presence 
of  C^edmon's  name  on  the  stone.  He  also,  as  does  Grein, 
mistakenly  reads  ///  anum^  instead  of  ti  lammi.  This,  says 
Stephens,  is  forbidden  by  the  stave  rune,  for  if  we  read  anum, 
we  should  have  the  same  vowel  as  the  al  in  the  next  line,  which 
is  inadmissible.  "  He  also,"  says  Stephens,  "  has  some  strange 
readings  of  the  two  Thorsbjerg  pieces  and  of  some  bracteates."  ^ 

Stephens  says,  further:  "A  careful  examination  of  the  South 
English  copy  (see  the  Glossary)  shows  that  the  scribe  was  writing 
from  a  North  English  original,  even  in  those  lines  which  are  not 
carved  on  the  cross.  But  in  addition  hereto,  a  slight  acquaintance 
with  the  '  Dream '  will  at  once  make  us  aware  of  one  very  striking 
peculiarity  of  style.  This  is  an  extraordinary  mixture  of  accents. 
Commonly  we  have  the  usual  two-accented  line.  But  every  now 
and  then,  under  the  pressure  of  poetic  excitement  or  personal 
taste,  or  the  traditions  of  a  local  school,  the  bard  breaks  out 
into  three,  sometimes  four  accents  in  one  line,  then  sinking  back 
again  into  the  regular  double  tone-weight."  Stephens  then 
gives  an  example  from  the  poem,  lines  7-24,  and  continues  : 
"As  far  as  I  know,  this  rhythmical  peculiarity  is  unknown  in 
Old  English  verse  except  here,  in  C?edmon's  Paraphrase  and  in 
that  noble  epical  fragment  'Judith.'  And  I  venture  to  assert 
that  all  these  are  by  one  and  the  same  Scop.    CcBdmon  wrote 

1  Op.  cit.  i.  411.  ^  See  the  Gott.  gel  auz.  for  the  5th  of  July  1865. 

3  Op.  cit.  i.  405. 


APPENDIX  III  277 

than  all  They  have  all  the  same  colour,  all  the  same  Miltonic 
sublimity,  the  same  steeling  of  phrase,  the  same  sinking  back, 
not  only  to  the  two-accented  line,  but  sometimes  to  an  almost 
prosaic  simplicity  in  the  intervals  of  his  flights  of  genius.  I  am 
thus  led  to  do  for  'Judith '  what  Mr.  Haigh  did  for  the  '  Dream.' 
I  attribute  it  to  Caidmon.  After-discovery  has  proved  the 
latter  to  be  right ;  probably  we  shall  never  be  able  to  produce 
direct  evidence  with  regard  to  *  Judith. '"  ^  In  regard  to  the  date 
of  the  Ruthwell  cross,  which  is  a  critical  matter  when  dealing  with 
the  authorship  of  the  poem,  Stephens  further  says:  "So  we 
gaze  on  these  baptized  Runic  runes  stones  more  potent  than  all 
the  Troll-runes  of  Heathenry.  All  the  dates  are  strictly  in 
accordance  herewith.  It  cannot  be  later  than  the  latter  half  of  the 
seventh  century,  for  it  bears  a  grammatical  form  so  antique  (the 
accusative  dual  ungcet)  that  it  has  hitherto  only  been  met  with  in 
this  place,  while  the  workmanship  also  points  to  the  same  period."  ^ 

In  1873  the  Dane  Hammerich  wrote  a  notable  work  on 
the  oldest  Christian  epic,  which  was  translated  into  German  the 
following  year.  He  speaks  quite  positively  in  regard  to  Csedmon 
being  the  poet  of  the  Rood  poem.  I  prefer  to  use  his  own  words 
in  German  translation  :  "  Die  saule  muss  namlich  ungefahr  gegen 
Ende  des  7  Jahrhunderts,  also  wahrend  Kaedmons  Lebenzeit 
Oder  doch  kurz  nach  seinem  ableben  errichtet  worden  sein. 
Hierauf  fiihren  uns  mit  Bestimmheit  der  stil  des  Denkmals,  seine 
Schriftziige,  endlich  die  altertiimliche  Sprache  welche  nur 
Deklinations  und  Conjugationsform  zeigt  die  in  keine  der  uns 
erhaltenen  Handschriften  ueber  gegangen  sind."^  Hammerich 
speaks  equally  positively  about  the  "Judith"  poem. 

At  present  only  fragments  of  the  Rood  poem  as  originally  in- 
scribed exist  on  the  weather-beaten  stone,  but  Stephens  suggests 
that  if  we  had  the  cross  in  its  original  integrity  it  is  not  improbable 
that  the  whole  of  the  poem  would  be  preserved  on  it.  Thus,  he 
speaks  of  one  lacuna  of  fourteen  lines  as  being  necessary  to  the 
sense.  The  fragments  are  short  and  sublime,  he  says,  and  in  the 
poet's  best  manner,  "and  the  lost  lines  have  probably  stood  on  one 
side  of  the  base,  or  one  of  the  arms  of  the  cross."  Again,  of  another 
portion  of  five  lines  which  is  now  absent,  he  says:  "These  five 
lines  have  perhaps  been  graven  on  another  side  of  the  base  or 
the  other  arms  of  the  cross,"  and  he  concludes  (should  this  view 
be  correct)  that  the  whole  cross-lay  has  consisted  of  about  forty- 
four  or  forty-six  lines  from  Cx'dmon's  own  hands.  As  his  sense 
^  Op.  cit.  419,  420.        2  lb.  420.        2  Op.  cit.  p.  34  ;  see  also  Walker,  137. 


278   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 


is  simpler  and  terser  in  some  places  than  the  later  South  English 
more  or  less  altered  and  interpolated  copy,  the  forty-seven  lines 
of  the  polished  and  modernised  skin-book  would  answer  to  about 
forty-four  or  forty-six  of  the  original  North  English  poem.^ 

This  conclusion  seems  most  reasonable,  and  if  it  be  so,  we  may 
add  a  corollary  equally  plausible,  namely,  that  the  poem  was  not 
improbably  actually  composed  for  this  very  cross  by  Caedmon. 
I  will  now  give  the  fragments  of  the  poem  preserved  on  the  cross 
in  juxtaposition  with  the  corresponding  part  of  the  West  Saxon 
version,  or  rather  "  extension  "  contained  in  the  Vercelli  Codex. 


[On]-geredse  hinse 

God  almeyottig 

Sa  he  walde 

On  galgu  gistiga 

Modig  fore 

[Ale]  men 

[B]ug  [a  ic  ni  dars]  te 


Line  77.    On-gyrede  hine  pa  geong  hseleS 
set  waes  God  selmihtig 
Strang  and  stid-mod 
ge-stah  he  on  gealgan  heanne 
modig  on  manigra  gesyh(5e 
pa  he  wolde  mancyn  lysan 
Bifode  ic  pa  me  se  beorn  ymbelypte 
ne    dorste    ic    hwse^rebugan    to 
cordan 


[Ahof]  ic  Rllcnce  cuningc 
Heafunces  Hlafard 
Hselda  ic  [n]i  darstse 


Line  87.    rod  wees  ic  a  sacred 
Ahof  ic  ricne  cyning 
heofona  hlaford 
hyldan  me  ne  dorste 


Line  95. 


Bismseraedu  ungcet  men  ba  aet-gad[r]e 

Ic  [wses]  mid  blodge  bistemid 
Bi[g]ot[e]n  o[f] 


Bysmeredon   hie   unc    butu    set 

goedere 
eall  ic  wses  mid  blode  bestemed 
begoten  of  pres  guman  sidan 


Krist  wsees  on  rodi 
HwseSrse  per  fusse 
Fearran  kwomu 
^SSilse  ti  lanum 
Ic  pset  al  bi[h]eal[d] 
S[are]  ic  waes 
Mip  sorgu[m]  gi[d]roe[fe]d 
H[u]ag  [ic] 


Christ  wses  on  rode 
Hvcedere  hser  fuse 
feorran  cwoman 
to  pani  seSelinge 
ic  pset  eall  beheold 
Sare  ic  wses 
mid  [sorgum]  gedrefed 
Huag  ic  hwcedre 


Mip  strelum  giwundad 

A-legdun  hise  hinse  limwoerignse 
Gisloddun      him     [set]     h[isl]icses 

[h]eaf[du]m 
[Bi]hea[l]du[n]  hi[se]  [pe[r]  heafun 


eall   ic    wses    mid   strselum  for- 

wundod 
aledon  hie  dser  limeverigne 
gestodon  him  set  his  lices  heafdum 


beheoldon    hie    Sser    heofen    es 
dryhten. 


1  Op.  cit,  i.  415. 


APPENDIX  III  279 

Let  us  now  try  and  shortly  analyse  the  pecuHarities  of 
C?edmon's  verse.  Like  other  early  Teutonic  poetry  it  was 
marked  by  a  special  form  which  also  prevailed  in  all  the  other 
extant  Anglo-Saxon  verse,  and  which  has  been  admirably  and 
tersely  described  by  my  very  accomplished  friends,  Yorke  Powell 
and  Vigfussen  in  their  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale.  I  will  give 
their  account,  which  may  not  be  familiar  to  my  readers.  They 
emphasise  that  this  early  poetry  "  knows  no  rhymes,  alliteration 
being  its  sole  bond ;  so  many  sets  of  alliteration,  so  many  lines ; 
nor  was  this  primitive  poetry  insistent  on  a  strict  number  of 
syllables  in  each  line,  nor  was  it  divided  into  strophes.  Every 
line  of  old  Teutonic  poetry  is  a  blank  verse  divided  into  two 
halves  by  a  li7ie  pause  which  always  comes  at  the  end  of  a  word. 

"  Each  half  is  made  up  of  a  fixed  number  of  measures,  a  measure 
being  a  word,  or  number  of  words,  of  which  the  first  root  syllable 
is  stressed  {i.e.  forcibly  pronounced),  as  one  does  in  speaking 
when  one  wishes  to  draw  particular  attention  to  a  particular 
word  or  syllable ;  e.g..  We  want  it,  we  want  it.  A  measure 
never  ends  nor  begins  in  the  middle  of  a  word,  such  affixes  as 
-ge,  -for,  -um,  -be,  being  treated  as  separate  words  in  poetry  ;  com- 
pounds and  strong  inflexions  are  like  separate  words. 

"  In  every  line  two  stress-syllables  at  least,  one  in  each  half- 
line,  must  begin  with  a  similar  consonant  or  vowel  (these 
vowels  being  usually  different,  and  in  later  Northern  poetry 
always  so).  Stress-syllables  thus  alliterated  are  said  to  carry 
letter-stress. 

"  In  many  lines  there  occur  one  or  more  unstressed  syllables 
which  form,  as  it  were,  the  elastic,  unmeasured  part  of  the  line  ; 
these  for  the  want  of  a  better  term  we  call  slurred  syllables,  or 
collectively,  a  slur.  It  is  not  meant  that  these  syllables  are 
gabbled  over ;  they  may  be  spoken  fast  or  slow,  but  that  they 
are  redundant  or  unimportant  for  the  '  make '  or  structure  of 
the  verse,  and  that  they  would  be  less  emphasised  and  spoken  in 
a  less  vigorous  tone  than  the  rest  of  the  line.  There  may  be 
one  or  more  slurs  in  a  line. 

"  When  a  monosyllabic  word  is  stressed  and  followed  by  no 
enclitic  words  before  the  next  stress,  it  is  succeeded  by  a  short 
interval  of  silence,  which  we  call  a  rest;  such  a  monosyllable  with 
its  rest  is  a  measure  in  itself. 

"  Quantity  is  observed  in  some  measures  as  in  Greek  verse. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  j-hyme  or  sound-echo  used  in  later 
Northern  metres  :  full-rhyme,    which  may  be  single,  '  take '  and 


2  8o  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

*  bake,'  and   double,   *  taking '  and  '  baking,'  consonant  rhyme, 
or  consonance,  as  '  take  '  and  '  cook.' 

"Rhymes  may  be  end-rhymes,  coming  one  at  the  end  of  each 
half-Hne  or  hne  of  a  set,  or  they  may  be  lifie-rhymes,  coming 
both  within  one  half-Une  :  Hne-rhymes  may  come  in  any  stem- 
syllable  of  a  word. 

"A  set  of  lines  may  form  a  verse-group  which  is  called  a 
stanza. 

"  A  set  of  lines  or  of  stanzas  may  form  a  longer  group  called 
a  strophe. 

"A  line  or  lines  may  be  used  at  necessary  intervals  as  a 
refrain  or  burden.^'' 

Again,  our  authors  say  :  "  In  the  beginning  poetry  was  simply 
excited  prose  and  e?fiphattc  prose  with  repetitions  of  catchwords, 
and  such  was  no  doubt  the  primitive  Teuton  poetry.  .  .  .  With 
the  Teutons  alliteratioji  of  stressed  root-syllables  was  the  pivot 
on  which  his  metric  turned.  The  Teutons  having  no  musical 
instruments  when  we  first  know  them,  and  having  a  tongue  whose 
structure  did  not  lend  itself  well  to  a  purely  quantitative  system, 
seem  to  have  hit  upon  the  development  of  that  alliterative  stress, 
which  is  a  feature  in  almost  all  early  verse,  naturally  satisfying 
that  marked  love  of  repetition  which  is  seen  in  all  children's  and 
savages'  songs  and  speeches. 

"  In  the  older  Teutonic  law  Formulae,  and  in  the  old  Latin 
Saturnians,  we  seem  to  get  specimens  of  the  earlier  stage  before 
regular  verse  of  the  alliterative  type  was  completely  reached, 
when  all  the  necessary  factors  were  already  present — line  pause, 
stresses,  and  alliteration,  but  before  the  artist  had  arisen  who 
was  to  fix  the  type.  This  great  Unknown  had,  however,  arisen 
before  the  English  crossed  the  North  Sea,  for  we  find  the  same 
line,  well-marked  and  unmistakable,  in  the  oldest  remains  of  the 
German,  the  Scandinavian,  and  the  English  races. 

*'  Its  finest  specimens  are  to  be  found  in  England,  in  the 
Vercelli  book  and  the  Caedmon  MS.,  whence,  says  Yorke  Powell, 
we  have  called  this  type  of  line  the  Csedmonian  line.  In  the 
lay  of  the  Rood  (preserved  in  the  Vercelli  book),  attributed  to 
Caedmon  as  it  seems  on  the  Ruthwell  cross,  we  have  the  purest 
extant  piece  of  poetry  in  this  metre.  ...  It  may  be  fully  de- 
scribed as  a  four-measured  line  2  :  2  (two  measures  in  each  half), 
with  two  letter-stresses  in  the  first  half  and  one  in  the  second, 
the  third  letter-stress  being  the  strongest,  the  first  weak,  the 
second  the  weakest.     Sometimes  there  is  but  one  letter-stress  in 


APPENDIX  III  281 

the  first  half-line.  There  is  frequently  a  'slur'  of  several  words, 
and  this  is  always  placed  at  the  beginning  of  a  line  or  half-line. 
Caedmon  himself  prefers  to  put  it  r7//rr  the  line-pause^  and  as  is  well 
shown  in  the  Rood  Song  this  is  far  the  best  place,  artistically 
speaking,  for  it.  Occasionally  ...  it  heads  both  halves  of  the 
line.  The  slur  is  spoken  in  a  low  but  distinct  recitative :  it  is 
the  elastic  part  of  the  line  and  forms  a  background  to  the 
emphatic  stresses  which  stud  the  line.  The  effect  of  such  un- 
stressed syllables  was  soon  noticed  and  taken  advantage  of. 

"  The  last  syllables  of  each  Caedmonian  half-line  appears  to 
have  in  preference  the  quantity  -  ^.  .  .  .  There  would  be  a  very 
good  reason  for  this  strict  and  regular  finish  before  each  pause  ; 
one  wants  to  feel  when  the  end  of  the  half-line  is  coming,  in  such 
a  long  and  varying  metre  as  this.^ 

I  will  now  give  a  sample  or  two  in  translation  to  show  the 
vigour  and  force  with  which  the  Bible  story  was  paraphrased, 
and  how  picturesquely  the  tale  was  told.  Courthope  in  his 
History  of  English  Poetry^  i.  99,  remarks  of  one  phase  : — 

"It  is  most  significant  to  observe  how  many  of  the  fundamental 
notions  of  Teutonic  mythology  and  custom  are  interwoven  with 
Caedmon's  reproductions  of  the  Scripture  narrative.  Thus  the 
image  by  which  the  Bible  always  suggests  the  torments  of 
Gehenna  is  fire ;  but  the  old  German  conception  of  Nifleheimer, 
or  the  underworld,  was  a  place  of  cold  and  mist,  and  these 
conflicting  ideas  are  strangely  blended  in  many  passages  at  the 
opening  of  Caedmon's  '  Genesis,'  in  which  the  poet  seeks  to  point 
the  abode  of  the  devil.     For  example  : — 

*' '  Then  was  God  angry  and  wroth  with  that  host  whom 
formerly  He  had  honoured  with  beauty  and  renown.  For  those 
traitors  He  shaped  a  house  of  banishment  with  anguish  for  their 
reward,  the  groans  of  hell,  hard  punishments.  Our  Lord, 
Guardian  of  Spirits,  bade  a  house  of  torment  await  the  exiles, 
deep  and  void  of  joys.  When  He  knew  that  it  was  ready, 
furnished  with  perpetual  night,  charged  with  sulphur,  filled 
throughout  with  fire,  with  i?itense  cold,  smoke  and  red  flame, 
then  through  that  house  void  of  comfort  He  bade  the  dread 
of  torment  to  increase.'  2  And  again  :  '  Therefore  stern,  in  a  worse 
light,  God  had  placed  them  triumphless  in  a  dark  hole ;  there  at 
even  they  have,  each  of  the  fiends,  an  immeasurably  long  renewal 
of  fire  ;  and  ere  dawn  comes,  the  east  wind,  frost,  bitter  cold, 

1  Op.  cit.  i.  431-435.  ^  Paraphrase  by  Thorpe,  p.  3. 


282   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

piercing  like  fire  or  dart.'  ^  Mists,  too,  and  vapours  prevail  in 
this  region,  as  thus :  '  God  Himself  hath  swept  us  into  these 
swart  mists  (thas  sweartan  mis]:>a).' "  ^ 

In  the  Teutonic  creed,  adds  Mr.  Courthope,  monstrous  ser- 
pents wander  round  the  world  like  the  Mitgards  Orme ;  or  lurk 
underneath  it  like  the  snakes  that  haunt  the  Spring  Hvergelmir, 
or  the  dreadful  reptile  which  fought  with  Thor.  A  reminiscence 
of  these  horrors  pervades  the  description  of  hell  as  painted  in  the 
Descensus  ad  l7iferos.  "  Even  at  hell-gate  dragons  dwell,  hot  in 
spirit ;  they  may  not  help  us."  ^  Hence  it  is  imagined  that  the 
"floor  is  on  fire  with  venom  scorched,"  and  hell  itself  is  described 
as  a  "horrid  den  with  venom  blended."*  Mr.  Courthope  well 
remarks  that  the  vivid  descriptions  of  hell  in  the  poem  could 
only  have  occurred  to  one  steeped  in  the  tradition  of  polytheism. 
Thus  the  poet  says  :  "  Verily  he  might  hear  who  was  twelve  miles 
from  hell,  that  there  were  teeth  grinding  loud  and  mournful."  ^ 

And  when  in  the  "  Harrowing  of  Hell "  Satan  is  cast  finally  into 
the  burning  pit,  it  is  said  that  when  he  stood  on  the  bottom 
there  seemed  to  him  to  be  from  thence  to  hell-gate  one  hundred 
thousand  miles  of  measured  space. ^ 

"  Something,  too,  of  the  old  heathen  terror  of  the  Mark  land 
fills  the  minstrel's  animated  rendering  of  the  march  of  the 
Israelites  out  of  Egypt."  "The  Heavenly  Candle  {i.e.  the 
pillar  of  fire)  burned,  the  new  night-ward  must  perforce  rest  over 
the  hosts  lest  the  horrors  of  the  waste,  the  hoar  heath  with  its 
raging  storms,  should  overwhelm  them,  their  souls  should  fail."''' 

The  ancient  spirit  is  no  less  conspicuous  in  the  paraphrase 
in  those  parts  relating  to  war,  etc.  Abraham  is  described  in  the 
genuine  Teutonic  vein  as  "  the  bold  evil  " ;  Pharaoh  as  "  the  dis- 
penser of  treasure."  When  Satan  is  contemplating  his  rebellion, 
he  says  :  "  Heroes  stern  of  mood  have  chosen  me  for  their  chief, 
renowned  warriors ;  with  such  may  one  take  counsel,  with  such 
folk-companions  share  it.  They  are  my  jealous  friends,  faithful  in 
their  thoughts  :  I  may  be  their  leader,  rule  in  this  realm ;  hence 
it  seems  not  right  to  me  that  I  in  aught  should  cringe  to  God  for 
any  good.     I  will  no  longer  be  His  youngest  vassal."^ 

So  when  the  paraphraser  has  to  describe  the  battle  between 
the  four  against  the  five  kings,  an  image  of  a  tribal  battle  rises 
in  his  mind.     "There  was   hard  play,  an  exchange    of  deadly 

^  Paraphrase  by  Thorpe,  p.  20.  2  /^_  p^  25. 

^  lb.  p.  270.  ^  lb.  pp.  226  and  273.  ^  lb.  p.  283. 

6  lb.  p.  310.  '  lb.  pp.  184,  185.  8  7^,  p,  i^. 


APPENDIX  III  283 

weapons,  a  great  warcry,  a  loud  crash  of  battle.  The  warriors 
from  their  sheaths  drew  their  ring-hilted  swords  of  doughty 
edge."i  Abraham  comes  to  the  rescue  of  the  defeated  party. 
"  Then  the  holy  man  bade  his  hearth-retainers  take  their 
weapons,  warriors  he  found  there,  bearers  of  the  ashen  spear, 
eighteen  and  three  hundred  beside,  faithful  to  their  lord.  He 
knew  that  each  could  well  bear  into  battle  the  yellow  linden 
{i.e.  the  wooden  shield)."  ^  Mr.  Courthope  sums  up  his  conten- 
tion thus :  "  The  foregoing  extracts  serve  to  show  how  many 
characteristics  of  the  old  minstrelsy  were  preserved  in  the 
Caedmonian  cycle  of  song.  .  .  .  The  most  noticeable  feature  in 
Ccedmon's  art  is  the  readiness  with  which  an  exotic  class  of 
subjects  becomes  naturalised  in  the  old  poetical  soil."' 

I  will  now  give  two  samples  of  the  vigorous  force  which 
marks  the  narrative  in  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  paraphrase. 
The  first  one  refers  to  the  Deluge  : — 

"  Then  the  Powerful  spake,  our  Preserver  unto  Noah  said  .  .  . 
I  will  with  flood  the  folk  destroy.  .  .  .  Thou  shalt  have  peace  with 
thy  sons.  When  the  swart  water  the  dark  death-streams  swell  with 
the  multitudes,  with  the  guilty  wretches.  Begin  thee  a  ship  to 
make,  a  great  sea-house  .  .  .  form  shelves  in  the  ship's  bosom, 
.  .  .  against  the  working  of  the  waves  make  it  seem  fast.  There 
shall  be  brought  food  for  the  living  of  every  kind,  into  that  wood 
fastness.  .  .  ."^ 

"  Noah  zealously  .  .  .  began  forthwith  to  build  the  house,  the 
great  sea  chest  .  .  .  the  greatest  of  sea  houses  he  strengthened 
within  and  without  with  lime  of  earth  against  the  flood.^ 

"  Noah  then  departed  as  the  Preserver  bade  him,  leading  his 
offspring  under  the  wave  timber,  and  their  wives  with  them  and 
all  their  provisions.^ 

"...  The  Lord  sent  rain  from  heaven  and  also  amply  let 
the  well  brooks  throng  on  the  world  from  every  vein  .  .  .  the 
seas  rose  over  their  shore  walls  .  .  .  then  rode  it  at  large  under 
the  skies,  over  the  orb  of  ocean,  that  house  most  excellent 
with  its  store.  .  .  .  Then  remembered  God  the  '  Seafaring ' 
{i.e.  Noah) ;  the  Lord  of  triumphs,  the  son  of  Lamech  .  .  .  the 
Warrior  Lord  of  hosts  then  let  a  wind  over  the  wide  land 
pass,  the  water  ebbed  .  .  .  the  rain  had  stilled.  .  .  .  Then  he 

^  Paraphrase  by  Thorpe,  p.  120. 

^  lb.  p.  123.  '  See  Courthope,  op.  cit.  i.  10 1. 

*  Thorpe,  Cocdmon's  Paraphrase,  pp.  78  and  79. 

5  lb,  p.  80.  ^  lb.  p.  82. 


2  84  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

{i.e.  Noah)  assayed  at  the  ship's  prow  whether  the  sea  flood 
were  yet  sinking  under  the  skies.  The  son  of  Lamech  then  let 
fly  out  a  swart  raven  over  the  deep  flood  from  the  house.  Noah 
expected  .  .  .  that  if  on  the  way  it  found  not  land  over  the 
water  it  would  seek  the  wave  house  again.  That  hope  it 
deceived,  for  the  exulting  fowl  perched  on  the  floating  corpses. 
.  .  .  Then  after  seven  nights  he  from  the  ark  let  out  a  livid 
dove,  on  discovery  whether  the  foaming  sea  still  deep,  had  given 
up  any  part  of  the  green  earth.  .  .  .  Widely  she  her  will  sought 
and  flew  far  away,  yet  she  found  no  rest  for  the  flood,  she 
could  not  perch  on  land  nor  on  the  tree  leaves  for  the  steep 
mountain  tops  were  with  waters  covered.  The  wild  fowl  at 
eve  went  to  seek  the  ark  over  the  dusky  wave,  weary,  to  sink 
hungry,  into  the  hands  of  the  holy  man.  Then  after  a  week 
was  gone  the  dove  was  again  sent  from  the  ark ;  wildly  she  flew 
away  till  that  she  in  space  exulting,  a  fair  resting-place  found, 
and  then  with  her  feet  stepped  on  a  tree,  blithe  of  mood 
rejoicing  because  she  had  sate  much,  weary  on  the  tree's 
branches.  On  the  lofty  mast  she  shook  her  feathers,  again  she 
went  flying  with  her  gifts  and  sailing  brought  a  twig  of  olive 
tree  to  hand  and  green  leaves.  Then  quickly  understood  the 
chief  of  mariners  that  comfort  was  become  his  painful  journey- 
ing's  recompense.  Again  after  the  third  week  the  blessed  man 
a  wild  dove  sent  which  came  not  again  flying  to  the  vessel 
but  she  gained  the  land,  and  the  green  groves.  She  under  the 
pitched  boards  would  not  ever  afterwards  appear  in  that  storied 
hold.  .  .  .1 

"...  The  Lord  spake  words  to  Noah.  Teem  now  and  propa- 
gate. .  .  .  Never  do  ye  with  blood  your  table  meals  impiously 
take,  defiled  with  sin,  with  blood  of  life  ...  I  upon  mid 
earth  the  torrent  host  never  again  will  lead.  ...  Of  this  ye  in 
the  skies  full  oft  a  sensible  token  may  behold,  when  I  my  shower- 
bow  display.  .  .  .  Then  was  the  wise  son  of  Lamech  come  from 
the  vessel  with  his  three  sons,  guardians  of  the  heritage,  and 
their  four  wives,  and  these  were  called  Percoba,  OUa,  OUiva,  and 
Ollivani.  .  .  .  ^  Chose  him  them  a  dwelling,  the  son  of  Haran  in 
Sodom  city  .  .  .  with  his  possessions  and  bracelets  from  Bethel 
and  household  treasures,  wealth,  twisted  gold.  .  .  .  ^  They  four 
then  departed,  kings  of  nations  to  seek  south  of  thence  Sodom 
and  Gomorrali  {i.e.  Chedorlaomer  and  the  other  kings). ^ 

1  Thorpe,  pp.  88  and  89.  ^  lb.  pp.  91-93. 

^  lb.  p.  115.  ^  lb.  p.  118. 


APPENDIX  III  285 

"Then  with  hostile  hands  was  by  Jordan  the  soil  of  the 
people's  natal  land  wide  overspread  with  enemies.  Many  a 
fearful,  pale-faced  damsel  must  trembling  go  into  a  stranger's 
embrace  .  .  .  the  defenders  of  their  brides  and  bracelets  fell  sick 
with  wounds  .  .  .  they  then  marched  together,  the  five  kings  of 
nations,  the  javelins  were  loud,  wroth  the  bands  of  slaughter,  the 
sad  fowl  sang  amid  the  dart-shafts  dewy  of  feathers,  the  rush 
expecting  .  .  .  the  warriors  with  their  hands  drew  from  their 
sheaths  the  ring-hilted  swords  of  edges  doughty,  then  was  early 
found  death-work  for  the  man  who  was  not  with  slaughter  satiate 
.  .  .  the  weapons'  leavings  went  to  seek  a  fastness.  The  foes 
pillaged  the  gold.  .  .  .  The  holy  man  {i.e.  Abraham)  bade  his 
hearth  retainers  their  weapons  take  .  .  .  bearers  of  the  ashen 
spear  .  .  .  the  fallow  linden  .  .  .  the  lines  of  the  foes  fell  thickly 
where  laughing  they  had  borne  the  spoil.  .  .  .  The  Lord  of  the 
people  went  of  his  men  bereft,  to  seek  Abraham  destitute  of 
friends ;  with  him  went  Salem's  treasures  guardian  that  was  the 
great  Melchizedek,  the  people's  bishop  who  came  with  gifts.  .  .  } 
Then  went  the  prince  of  Salem  to  Abraham  and  said  to  him,  Give 
me  the  damsels  of  my  people,  have  to  thee  the  twisted  gold  that 
erst  belonged  to  our  folk.  .  .  .  There  is  no  worldly  pelf  that  I  will 
for  myself  possess  nor  shilling.  .  .  .  Dei^art  now  homeward  with 
the  fretted  gold  and  beloved  damsels,  women  of  the  nations  .  .  . 
the  teeming  fowls  among  the  mountain  heights  sit  bloody  with 
the  slaughter  of  those  bands  thickly  filled.  .  .  .  "^ 

In  describing  a  battle  between  the  Israelites  led  by  Moses 
and  the  Egyptians,  our  poet  says  : — 

"  Around  them  screamed  the  fowls  of  war,  greedy  of  battle, 
dewy  feathered ;  over  the  bodies  of  the  host  the  wolves  sang 
their  horrid  evensong,  in  hopes  of  food  the  reckless  beasts 
threatened  death  to  the  valiant,  on  the  foes'  track  flew  the  army- 
fowl.  The  march-wards  cried  at  midnight,  the  spirit  of  death 
flew,  the  people  were  hemmed  in.  At  length  the  proud  thanes 
of  that  host  met  amid  the  paths  in  bendings  of  the  boundaries ; 
to  them  there  the  banner  king  marched  with  the  standard,  the 
prince  of  men  rode  the  marches  with  his  band,  the  warlike 
guardian  of  the  people  clasped  his  grim  helm,  the  king  his 
visor.  The  banners  glittered  in  hopes  of  battle,  slaughter  shook 
the  proud.  He  bade  his  warlike  l)and  bear  them  boldly  .  .  .  the 
hoar  army  wolves  the  battle  hailed,  thirsty  for  the  brunt  of  war 
.  .  .  the  renowned  oft  awaited  the  horn  in  the  phalanx,  to  the 
^Thorpe,  pp.  121-126.  'lb.  j)p.  126-130. 


2  86  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

leaders  of  which  the  warhke  host  of  people  ready  marched.  .  .  . 
In  the  number  of  the  people  were  fifty  bands,  each  band  had 
of  the  famed  host  arm-bearing,  warfaring  ten  hundred  numbered 
illustrious  warriors.  That  was  a  warlike  host.  The  weak  were 
not  admitted  into  that  martial  number,  the  leaders  of  the  army, 
those  that  for  youth,  might  not  yet  under  their  bucklers  the 
breast-net  {i.e.  shirt  of  mail)  of  men  against  the  arrows  of  the 
enemies  with  their  limbs  defend,  nor  baleful  wounds  had  injured  ; 
sore  body-wounds  over  the  linden  shields — the  darts  exulting 
play.  The  aged,  the  hoary  chieftains  might  not  engage  in  battle, 
yet  in  the  bands  their  mind  and  might  had  sway,  for  they 
according  to  their  strength  each  chose  each  warrior  how  to  the 
nation  he  would  show  valour  with  glory  also  by  dint  of  might. 
.  .  .  Leaped  then  before  the  warriors  the  man  of  war,  the  bold 
commander,  with  his  shield  upraised  who  bade  the  folk  leaders  stay 
the  march  while  many  should  hear  the  bold  chiefs  address.  .  .  . 
Then  before  the  multitudes  he  raised  a  loud  voice,  before  the 
people  of  the  living  when  he  to  the  nations  spake :  '  Lo  ye  now 
with  your  eyes  behold,  most  beloved  of  people,  a  stupendous 
wonder ;  how  I  myself  have  struck  with  this  right  hand,  a 
green  sign  the  ocean's  deep,  the  wave  ascends ;  rapidly  worketh 
the  water  a  wall  fastness  ;  the  ways  are  dry,  rugged  army  roads  \ 
the  sea  hath  left  its  old  stations,  where  before  I  have  never  heard 
of  men  journeying  over  mid  earth,  there  are  now  variegated  fields 
which  from  this  time  through  eternity  the  waves  have  covered,  the 
salt  sea  depths  hath  the  south  wind  dried  up,  the  sea  wave's  blast. 
Ocean  is  swept  away,  the  sea's  ebb  hath  drawn  the  sand.  I 
know  in  sooth  full  well  that  to  you  the  mighty  God  will  have 
shewn  mercy^  O  chiefs,  ere  sunset.  Quickest  is  best  so  that  ye  from 
the  enemies'  may  grasp  escape.  Now  the  Lord  hath  upreared  the 
red  streams  as  a  protecting  shield,  the  fore-walls  are  fairly  raised 
(wondrous  roads)  to  the  cloud's  roof.'  After  those  words,  the  host 
all  rose,  the  power  of  the  bold :  the  sea  stood  still.  Martial 
hands  raised  the  white  lindens,  the  banners  on  the  sands ;  the 
sea  wall  rose,  stood  erect  towards  the  Israelites  on  one  day's 
space.  The  host  of  men  was  of  one  mind.  .  .  .  Then  the 
fourth  tribe  went  foremost,  waded  into  the  wave  stream  the 
warriors  in  a  body,  over  green  ground.  The  tribe  of  Judah 
hastened  singly  an  unknown  way  before  their  kinsmen,  so  on  them 
the  mighty  God  for  that  day's  work  a  high  reward  the  stern 
worker  of  victories  bestowed,  since  that  to  them  he  granted  that 
it  the  eldership  should  possess  over  the  kingdoms,  the  flower  of 


APPENDIX   III  287 

their  kin.  They  had  over  their  bucklers  for  their  banner  when 
into  the  sea  they  marched  a  signal  reared  in  the  armed  band, 
a  golden  lion,  greatest  of  tribes,  keenest  of  beasts.  .  .  .  After 
that  band  the  sea-men  proudly  moved,  the  sons  of  Reuben, 
bare  their  shields,  sea  vikings  (see  vikingar)  over  the  salt  marsh. 
.  .  .  The  {)Ower  went  forth  ...  on  their  way  forth,  folk  by 
folk,  tribe  by  tribe.  Each  one  knew  his  right  of  kin  as  Moses 
bade  them,  the  chief  nobility.  To  them  was  one  father  a 
beloved  patriarch."^ 

The  destruction  of  the  Egyptian  host  in  the  Red  Sea  is  told 
with  wonderful  picturesqueness  and  force.  "  The  folk  was 
affrighted,  the  dread  flood  seized  on  their  sad  souls ;  the  ocean 
wailed  with  death,  the  mountain  heights  were  with  blood  be- 
steamed,  the  sea  foamed  gore,  there  was  crying  in  the  waves 
and  the  water  was  full  of  weapons.  A  death  mist  rose  ;  the 
Egyptians  were  turned  back,  they  fled  trembling,  they  felt  fear, 
would  that  host  ever  gladly  find  their  homes  ?  Their  vaunt  grew 
sadder,  for  the  rolling  of  the  waves  rose  against  them  like  a  cloud. 
Then  came  none  of  that  host  to  home,  but  from  behind  they 
were  enclosed  by  the  fateful  wave.  Where  paths  once  passed,  the 
sea  now  raged  .  .  .  the  storm  rose  high  to  heaven,  the  loudest 
army-cry  uttered  the  host,  the  air  above  was  thickened  with 
dying  voices,  blood  infused  the  flood  ;  the  shield  walls  were  riven, 
the  firmament  shook,  the  proud  dead  kings  died  in  a  body  in  that 
greatest  of  sea  deaths.  Over  the  soldiers'  bucklers  shone  as  the 
proud  ocean  stream  their  might  fast  fettered.  .  .  .  The  tides  neap 
obstructed  by  the  war  enginery  laid  bare  the  land  to  the  pallid 
host,  when  the  ever  cold  sea  with  the  salt  waves  rushed  on.  .  .  . 
The  blue  air  was  with  corruption  tainted,  the  bursting  ocean 
whooped  a  bloody  storm  the  sea-men's  way  ...  it  swept  death  in 
its  embrace,  the  flood  foamed,  the  fated  died,  water  deluged  the 
land  .  .  .  the  guardian  of  the  flood  struck  the  unsheltering 
wave  with  an  ancient  faulchion,  and  in  the  swoon  of  death 
those  armies  slept  .  .  .  there  was  drowned  the  flower  of  Egypt, 
Pharaoh  with  his  folk.  ...  Of  that  multitude,  came  not  home 
again  of  all  the  boundless  host  any  as  remnant,  to  proclaim 
their  fate,  and  to  publish  to  the  consorts  of  the  warriors  the 
greatest  of  baneful  tales,  there  princes  fell,  and  those  mighty 
bands  the  sea-death  swallowed."- 

In  describing  the  march  of  Moses  and  his  host  on  Etham, 
after  destroying  the  Egyptian  host,  the  poet  recalls  the  scene 
^  Thorpe,  pp.  192-199.  -  Jb.  pp.  206-210, 


2  88  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

in  picturesque  condensed  phrases.  "  On  their  south  was  the 
Ethiop's  land,  scorched  mountain-tops,  with  a  people  burned 
with  the  hot  coals  of  heaven.  Then  the  holy  God  shielded  the 
people  against  the  heat  intense,  with  a  canopy  he  overspread  the 
burning  heaven,  with  a  holy  net  the  torrid  air.  The  cloud  in  its 
wide  curtain  divided  the  earth  and  firmament.  It  led  the 
nation  host,  and  quenched  was  the  flame-fire  of  the  heaven's 
bright  heat.  The  people  were  amazed,  and  most  joyous  with 
the  shade  of  their  day-shield  of  rolling  clouds.  The  Wise  God 
shrouded  the  sun's  course  with  a  sail.  Through  the  short  ropes 
their  sight  could  not  penetrate  nor  could  they  see  the  sail-cross  and 
how  all  the  enginery  was  fastened  in  that  greatest  of  field  houses."  ^ 
Let  us  now  turn  to  the  second  part  of  the  Bodleian  book, 
where  the  vivid  suggestion  of  the  pictures,  the  rapidity  of  the 
thought,  and  the  simplicity,  directness,  and  passion  of  the  narrative 
are  specially  extolled  by  a  good  critic,  namely,  Mr.  Stopford 
Brooke.  As  he  says,  the  characters  live,  and  notably  the  chief 
hero  himself,  Satan,  while  his  dwelling-place  hell  is  painted  with  fine 
imaginative  colours  from  a  master's  hand,  however  crude  in  form. 
"  The  description  of  the  latter  seems,"  says  the  author  just  quoted, 
"  to  belong  to  a  time  when  the  Northern  idea  of  the  realm  of  the 
dark  death-goddess  Hel  had  begun  to  be  influenced  by  the 
Christian  hell."  If  that  conception  mingled  at  all  with  the  hell 
now  before  us,  we  might  be  able  to  suggest  a  conjectural  date 
for  this  poem.  The  Northern  Helle  is  not  a  place  of  punishment 
filled  with  fire,  nor'is  it  dwelt  in  by  the  evil  only.  All  go  down 
to  it  save  the  heroes  who  die  in  battle — even  Brynhild  and 
Balder.  It  lies  low  down  to  the  North,  in  a  pale,  mist-world 
(Nifleheimer),  covered  with  night,  very  cold,  swept  with  winds ; 
with  gates,  a  great  hall  where  the  goddess  dwells,  a  fountain  in 
the  midst  where  dragons  and  serpents  lie,  and  twelve  roaring 
rivers,  gloomy  and  joyless.  Muspell  is  the  fire-world  in  the 
South,  and  no  human  beings  ever  pass  into  it.  Various 
fragments  of  this  conception  appear  in  the  hell  of  this  poem. 
Fire-breathing  dragons  are  at  its  gates,  and  serpents  swarm  in  it. 
There  is  a  hall  in  it,  in  which  Satan  wanders  like  Hel.  It  is 
cold  and  dark,  and  over  it  broods  abysmal  cloud.  Those  who 
wander  in  it  are  black-visaged.  These  are  the  heathen  fragments. 
The  Christian  hell — in  which  the  name  of  the  goddess  was 
changed  into  the  name  of  a  place — is  made  a  realm  of  fire,  like 
Muspell,  but  unlike  Muspell  is  filled  with  human  souls  as  well  as 
^  Thorpe,  Caedmon's  Paraphrase,  pp.  182,  183. 


APPENDIX  III  289 

demons.     This  place  is  vigorously  described  in  the  poems.     It 
is  sunk  deep  in  the   lowest  abyss,   "  underneath    high    nesses " 
{i.e.  promontories,  a  new  image  in  the  description  of  hell).    This 
is  twice  repeated,  and  links  the  conception  of  the  place  to  the 
mediaeval  notion  of  the  last  pit  of  hell.    Below  these,  as  if  on  their 
strand,  the  fiends  sometimes  assemble  and  mourn.     The  cliffs 
stand  round  a  "  deep-tossing  and  weltering  sea  of  fire,  greedy  and 
ravenous — a  loathsome  lair."  This  heaving  and  leaping  sea  is  hell's 
floor — "an  ocean  mingled  with  venom  and  with  venom  kindled." 
Serpents  move  in  it  and  twine  round  naked  men ;  adders  and 
dragons  dwell  in  it  (in  "  Judith  "  hell  is  called  "a  hall  of  serpents  ") ; 
its  wind-swept  hall  is  filled  with  anguish.     The  devils  wander  to 
and  fro  in  it,  howling  in  woe;  and  twelve  miles  beyond  the  gates 
of  this  narrow  realm  of  hate  the  gnashing  of  their  teeth  is  heard 
in  the  abyss  of  space.     The  gates  are  huge,  dragons  sit  at  them, 
and  they  are  fast,  shut    up   and  immovable   save  when  Christ 
comes  upon  them,  when  they  are  battered  down  to  the  noise  of 
thunder  at  dawn.     When  Satan  speaks,  fire  and  poison  fly  from 
his  lips  with  his  words,  and  flicker  through  hell ;  and  he  is  as 
restless  in  hell  as  he  is  said  in  the  Book  of  Job  to  be  on  earth. 
The   very   distance  from    Palestine  is    given.     Hell  is   100,000 
miles  below  the  Mount  of  the  Temptation.     This  is  as  definite 
as  Dante.     Much  of  this  is  freshly  imagined,  and  its  possible 
nearness  to  heathen  thought  gives  it  a  greater  interest  than  the 
later  mediaeval  conceptions  possess.^ 

The  first  poem,  "The  Fall  of  the  Angels,"  begins  with  the  praise 
of  God  as  Creator,  and  with  a  sketch  of  the  fall  of  Satan  into 
hell.  Then  the  "  Old  One  "  wails  for  his  loss  of  heaven,  and  for 
the  fiery  ruin  in  which  he  lives.  He  is  far  more  convinced  of 
his  sin  than  the  audacious  devil  of  "Genesis."  "I  may  never 
hope,"  he  cries,  "  to  have  again  the  better  home  I  lost  through 
pride."  A  new  motive  is  now  introduced.  In  the  "  Genesis  "  all 
his  companions  love  him  and  are  on  his  side.  Here  they 
reproach  and  scorn  him.  "  With  lying  words  thou  hast  deceived 
us  ]  God  thou  wast ;  thyself  wast  the  Creator — so  thou  saidst ; 
a  wretched  robber  art  thou  now,  fast  bound  in  bands  of  fire." 
Another  curious  phrase  is  the  following,  where  we  meet  with  the 
son  of  the  devil,  as  if  in  heaven  he  had  imitated  God  and  sent 
his  son  forth  as  master :  "  Full  surely  thou  saidst  that  thy  son 
was  the  creator  of  man  ;  all  the  greater  are  now  thy  pains." 
Again  Satan  takes  up  his  complaint,  and  repeats  in  different 
^  Stopford  Brooke,  History  of  Early  English  Literature,  ii.  129-131. 
VOL.  III. — 19 


290  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

phrases  the  same  motive — regret  for  heaven,  hopelessness  of 
return,  the  present  horrors  of  hell.  A  third  time  he  takes  up  the 
same  cry ;  and  then  a  fourth  time,  the  words  flying  from  him  in 
sparks  likest  to  poison,  and  he  bursts  out  into  a  passionate  agony 
of  vain  repentance — 

164.   O  thou  helm  of  banded  hosts  !     O  high  glory  of  the  Lord  ! 
O  thou  might  of  the  great  Maker  !     O  thou  Middle-Earth  ! 
O  thou  dazzling  daylight !     O  delight  of  God  ! 
O  ye  angel  hosts  !     O  thou  upper  Heaven  ! 
O  that  I  am  all-bereft  of  the  Everlasting  Joy  ! 
That  I  may  not  with  my  hands  reach  unto  the  Heaven, 
Never  with  these  eyes  of  mine  upwards  look  again  ; 
Never  with  mine  ears  ever  hear  again 
Sounding  clear  the  clang  of  the  clarions  of  God. 

"Woe  and  torment,  exile  must  I  bear,  wander  a  wide 
wandering  in  wretchedness  and  care,  for  I  strove  to  drive  from 
his  throne  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  This  is  the  first  song  in  the 
poem,  and  it  ends  with  an  outburst  on  the  poet's  part  of  warning 
to  men,  and  of  a  prophecy  of  the  joy  of  heaven.^ 

The  second  complete  poem  of  this  part  of  the  Junian 
Csedmon  is  on  the  "  Harrowing  of  Hell,"  and  begins  at  line  366. 
It  commences  with  a  sketch  of  the  fall  of  Lucifer  into  hell,  and 
then  breaks  abruptly  into  the  subject.  "  Anguish  came  on  hell, 
thunder-crash  before  the  Judge,  as  He  bowed  and  shattered  the 
gate  of  hell,  but  joy  was  in  the  heart  of  men  "  (that  is,  of  the  good 
spirits  in  prison)  "  when  they  saw  the  Saviour.  But  full  of  horror 
were  the  fiends,  wailing  far  and  wide  through  the  windy  hall." 
"  Terrible  is  this,  since  the  storm  has  come  to  us,  the  Hero  with 
His  following,  the  Lord  of  Angels.  Before  Him  shines  a  lovelier 
light  than  we  have  ever  seen,  since  we  were  on  high  among  the 
angels.  So  will  now  our  pains  be  deeper."  Then, — for  now  the 
poet  repeats  his  motive  in  order  to  introduce  the  speech  of  Eve, — 
then  came  the  Angel-cry,  loud  thunder  at  the  break  of  day. 
The  Lord  had  overcome  His  foes — war-feud  was  open  on  that 
morning,  when  He  came  to  lead  forth  the  chosen  souls  of  Adam's 
race.  Yet  Eve  could  not  look  upon  the  glow  of  joy  till  she  had 
spoken,  and  her  speech  occupies  nearly  forty  lines.  It  may 
mark  the  early  origin  of  the  poem,  that  the  important  place 
among  the  souls  in  Hades  is  given  to  a  woman.  She  tells  the 
story  well ;  she  makes  picture  after  picture  of  hell  before  the 
Saviour's  coming.  He  listens  courteously  to  the  end.  She 
1  Stopford  Brooke,  ii.  1 31-133. 


AiTENDIX  III  291 

begins  with  the  story  of  their  fall,  speaking  for  Adam  and  herself. 
"Our  guilt  was  bitterly  recompensed;  thousands  of  winters 
have  we  wandered  in  this  hot  hell,  dreadfully  burning.  But 
now,  I  beseech  thee.  Prince  of  Heaven,  that  I  with  all  my  kins- 
folk may  go  up  from  hence.  Three  nights  ago  came  a  servant 
of  the  Saviour  "  (this  was  Judas),  "  home  to  hell.  Fast  is  he  now  in 
prison,  yet  he  told  us  that  God  Himself  would  enlighten  this 
house  of  hell,  our  dwelling."  From  this  happy  invention  of 
Judas,  his  message  and  his  fate,  she  turns  to  describe  how  the 
news  was  received  by  all  the  Old  Testament  saints  waiting  in 
hell— 

432.  Then  up-lifted  each  himself;  on  his  arm  he  set  himself, 
On  his  hands  he  leant.     Though  the  hellish  Horror 
Full  of  awfulness  appeared,  yet  was  every  one 
Midst  his  pains  delighted,  since  the  Prince  of  Men 
Willed  their  home  to  visit  and  to  bring  help  to  them. 

Then  she  reached  out  her  hands  and  besought  the  King  of 
Heaven  through  the  office  of  Mary.  "  Thou  wert  in  truth,  O 
my  beloved  Lord,  born  into  the  world  of  my  daughter,  now  it  is 
plain  that  thou  art  God." 

She  ended,  and  Christ,  driving  the  fiends  deeper  into  hell, 
took  upwards  with  Him  all  the  host  of  the  redeemed.  "  It  was 
fair  indeed,  when  they  came  to  their  fatherland,  and  with  them 
the  Eternal  to  His  glorious  '  burg.'  Holy  prophets  put  forth  their 
hands,  and  lifted  them  into  home,"  and  they  sat  down  to  feast. 
Then,  as  in  an  assembly  of  English  nobles,  Christ  rose  and  made 
His  speech  to  them — and  the  phrase  with  which  He  begins  recalls 
the  Witan  :  "  Wise  spirits,"  He  starts,  and  in  His  turn  he  gives 
another  account  of  the  fall  and  of  its  punishment ;  "  O  'twas 
woe  to  me,"  He  cries,  "  that  the  work  of  My  hands  should  endure 
the  chain  of  the  prison-house.  Then  I  came  on  earth  and  died. 
Well  it  was  for  you  that  the  warriors  pierced  Me  with  spears 
upon  the  gallows  tree."  So  spake  the  Ward  of  Glory  on  the 
morning  of  the  Resurrection  !  The  poem  then  turns  to  describe 
the  Resurrection,  the  Ascension,  Pentecost,  and  the  Last  Judg- 
ment, and  each  fragment  closes  with  a  separate  outbreak  of  religious 
warning  and  joy.  As  in  the  previous  part,  this  similar  ending 
suggests  that  these  were  isolated  songs,  collected  here  and 
placed  together  by  a  later  editor.  There  is  nothing  in  them  of 
any  special  worth. ^ 

At  line  665,  another  fragment  of  a  separate  poem,  inserted 
^  Stopford  Brooke,  ii.  133-135. 


292  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

out  of  its  historical  place,  relates  a  part  of  the  story  of  the 
Temptation.  It  is  only  remarkable  for  the  mocking  speech  of 
Christ  when  He  repels  the  tempter  on  the  mountain,  such  a 
speech  as  an  English  warrior  might  have  made  to  his  foe :  "  Go, 
accursed,  to  the  den  of  punishment,  but  I  bid  thee  take  no  jot 
of  hope  to  the  burghers  of  hell ;  but  promise  them  the  deepest 
of  all  sorrows ;  go  down,  and  know  how  far  and  wide  away  is 
dreary  hell.  Measure  it  with  thine  hands,  and  grip  against  its 
bottom.  Go,  till  thou  knowest  all  the  round  of  it ;  from  above 
to  the  abyss,  measure  how  broad  is  the  black  mist  of  it.  Then 
wilt  thou  understand  that  thou  lightest  against  God.  Go  with 
speed,  and  before  two  hours  are  passed,  thou  shalt  have  measured 
thine  allotted  house  !  " 

So  he  fell  down  to  dreadful  pains — down  towards  hell,  and 
first  he  measured  with  his  hands  the  torment  and  the  woe,  and 
then  (as  he  descended)  the  lurid  flame  smote  upwards  against 
him,  and  then  he  saw  the  captives  lie  below  him  in  hell,  and 
then  the  howl  of  the  demons  reached  his  ear  when  they  saw 
the  unholy  one  return,  and  then  he  on  the  bottom  stood.  And 
when  he  was  there,  it  seemed  to  him  that  to  hell's  door  from  the 
place  where  he  had  been  was  100,000  miles  by  measure.  And 
he  looked  round  on  the  ghastly  place,  and  there  rose  a  shriek 
from  all  the  lost,  and  they  cried  aloud  to  the  Lord  of  their 
kingdom — 

There  !  be  ever  thou  in  evil !     Erst  thou  wouldst  not  be  good.^ 

As  a  specimen  of  the  "  Judith "  poem  I  extract  a  passage 
in  reference  to  her  dealings  with  Holofernes.  The  tenth 
book  begins  with  a  vigorous  description  of  a  great  drinking 
feast  given  by  him,  which  lasts  the  whole  day  till  all  the 
captains  were  furiously  drunk.  As  to  Holofernes,  himself, 
he  seems  to  be  drawn  direct  from  some  English  chief  well 
known  for  drinking  prowess.  "  He  laughed  and  shouted  and 
raged  so  that  all  his  folk  heard  far  away  how  the  stark- 
minded  stormed  and  yelled,  full  of  fierce  mirth  and  mad  with 
mead."  He  bids  Judith  be  led  to  his  tent.  A  golden  fly- 
net  hangs  between  his  bed  and  the  drinking  chamber,  so  that 
he  could  see  the  guests,  but  they  might  not  look  on  him. 
Drunk,  he  fell  on  his  bed,  and  Judith  stepped  forth  with  plaited 
tresses.  And  she  held  a  sharp  sword,  hardened  by  the  storms 
{scurum)  of  battle,  "  drew  it  from  the  sheath,  and  called  on  the 
^  Stopford  Brooke,  ii.  135,  136. 


APPENDIX  III  293 

Ward  of  Heaven,  God  the  Creator,  spirit  of  consolation."  The 
prayer  is  nobly  wrought,  brief  and  forceful,  full  of  passion — 
passion  for  her  country  and  her  God,  passion  of  the  woman 
brought  so  near  to  shame.  "  Let  me  hew  down,"  it  ends,  "  this 
lord  of  murder  !  Venge  thou,  O  God,  that  which  is  so  angry  in 
me,  the  burning  in  my  heart."  The  slaughter  is  then  carefully 
described.  Her  cleverness  as  she  seizes  the  heathen  by  the  hair 
and  tits  him  for  the  blow  ;  her  strength  as  she  drives  the  glittering 
sword  half  through  his  throat,  and  then  again  smites  the  heathen 
dog,  half-dead,  till  his  head  rolled  out  upon  the  floor,  are  as 
vigorously  hewn  into  the  verse  as  the  sword  into  Holofernes. 
"  There  lay  the  foul  carcase,  but  the  spirit  turned  to  go  to  the 
deep  abyss,  and  was  battened  down,  with  pangs,  with  worms 
enwound  in  that  snake-hall." 

Book  xi.  then  takes  Judith  and  her  "  pale-cheeked  maid," 
with  the  head  in  their  bag,  out  of  the  sleeping  camp,  till  they  see 
the  "shining  walls  of  fair  Bethulia.  There  sat  on  the  ramparts 
the  burghers,  watching,  and  Judith  called  on  them  and  the  folk 
ran  to  the  gate,  men  with  women,  crowding  together,  stormed 
and  raced,  old  and  young  in  thousands,  to  meet  the  divine  maid." 
She  bids  her  girl  unwrap  the  bloody  head,  and  Joan  of  Arc 
could  not  have  made  a  more  impassioned,  a  more  warlike 
speech — 

177.  Clearly  may  ye  now,  conquering  heroes  strong  ; 

0  ye  leaders  of  the  people  gaze  upon  the  head 

of  this  heathen  lord  of  fight,   of  this  loathliest  (of  men) 
Holofernes,  now  unliving, 

who  of  all  men  made  most  of  murderous  woes  for  us  ! 
185.  By  the  help  of  God 

1  have  wrenched  his  life  away.     Now  will  I  bid  each  of  you, 
each  burg-dweller,   to  the  battle. 

189.  Fit  ye  for  the  fighting  !     When  the  God  of  first  beginnings, 
merciful  and  monarch,^  eastward  arises 

bright  with  the  blaze  of  day,  then  bear  your  lindens  forward. 
Shield -board  sheltering  your  breast,  byrnies  for  your  raiment, 
helmets  all  a-shining,  midst  that  horde  of  scathers  ; 
felling  the  folk-leaders  with  the  flashing  swords. 
Chieftains  cursed  for  death  !     (Courage  !),  all  your  foes 
to  the  death  are  doomed  !     Ye  shall  have  dominion, 
and  gain  a  glory  in  the  battle  ;  for  the  greatest  Lord 
hath  a  handsel  given  through  mine  hand  to  you. 

'^  Arfeast  cyning,   "glorious   king,"   but    "Ar"   has   also  the  sense   of 
compassion. 


294  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

"  Then  the  host  of  swift  ones  speedily  made  ready ;  all  the 
warriors  bold  as  kings,  all  the  comrades,  bore  their  victory- 
banners  and  fared  into  the  fight ;  forward  in  right  line  they  moved ; 
all  the  heroes  under  helm  from  the  holy  burg  at  the  breaking 
of  the  day.  Din  there  was  of  shields,  loud  they  rang ;  and  the 
gaunt  wolf  of  the  weald  rejoiced,  and  the  black  raven  greedy  of 
slaughter.  Well  they  knew  both  of  them  that  the  heroes  thought 
to  count  out  death  to  the  doomed  ;  ^  and  upon  their  track  flew 
the  erne,  hungry  for  his  fodder ;  all  his  feathers  dewy ;  dusky  was 
his  sallow  coat ;  horny-nebbed,  he  sang  his  battle-song.  Swiftly 
stepped  the  chiefs  of  battle  to  the  field  of  carnage,  with  the 
hollow  lindens  sheltered.  .  .  .  Then  they  let,  with  valiancy, 
showers  of  their  arrows,  adders  of  the  battle,  fly  from  their  bows 
of  horn,  hard-headed  bolts.  Loudly  stormed  the  warriors  fierce, 
and  their  spears  they  sent,  right  into  the  host  of  hard  ones.  .  .  . 
So  the  Hebrews  showed  their  foes  what  the  sword-swing 
was." 

By  this  time  the  Assyrian  host  was  awake,  and  Book  xii. 
relates  how  messengers  came  from  the  outskirts  of  the  host 
to  the  chief  thegns,  and  how  they  roused  the  standard-bearing 
warrior ;  and  how  they  took  counsel  whether  they  dared  to  wake 
Holofernes.  Too  much  at  this  crisis  is  made  of  this  poor 
motive.  They  gather  round  their  lord's  tent.  No  noise  awakens 
him.  At  last,  one  bolder  than  the  rest  breaks  in,  and  lo  !  pale 
lay  his  gold-giver  on  the  bed,  robbed  of  life.  "  Here  lies,"  he 
cries,  "  headless,  hewn  down  by  sword,  our  Upholder."  All  their 
weapons  fall ;  they  fly ;  behind  them  throngs  a  mighty  folk  ;  the 
Hebrew  heroes  "hew  a  path  with  swords  through  the  press, 
thirsty  for  the  onset  of  the  spear."  So  fell  in  dust  the  nobles  of 
Assyria,  "  left  to  the  will  of  the  wolves,  fodder  for  the  fowls  of 
slaughter."  Then  is  told  the  gathering  of  the  spoil.  "  Proud, 
with  plaited  locks,  the  Hebrews  brought  precious  treasures  to 
Bethulia's  shining  burg — helms  and  hip-seaxes  {i.e.  short  swords), 
bright  grey  byrnies,  and  panoplies  of  warriors  inlaid  with  gold. 
And  to  Judith,  wise  and  fair  of  face,  they  gave  the  sword  and 
bloody  helm  and  eke  the  huge  byrnie  of  Holofernes  all  with 
red  gold  embossed,  and  his  armlets  and  bright  gems.  For  all 
this  she  said  praise  be  to  the  Lord  of  every  folk."  Then  the 
poem  makes  a  fair  ending,  tender  and  gracious,  and  touched 
with  that  love  of  nature  which  we  so  often  find  among  the 
English — 

*  Or,  perhaps,  **to  furnish  for  them  their  fill  on  the  doomed." 


APPENDIX  III  295 

347,  To  the  Lord  beloved,  for  this 

Glory  be  for  widening  ages  !     Wind  and  light  He  shaped  of  old, 
Sky  above  and  spacious  earth,  every  one  of  the  wild  streams, 
And  the  aether's  jubilation— through  His  own  delightfulness.^ 

We  will  lastly  turn  to  the  finest  of  all  Caedmon's  poems, 
which  is  preserved  for  us  on  the  Ruthwell  cross  and  in  the  Vercelli 
Codex.  I  will  collect  a  selection  of  passages  from  the  translation 
of  Professor  Stephens,  which  echoes  very  fairly  the  language  of 
the  original,  and  which  I  shall  in  the  main  follow. 

Methought  me  that  I  saw 

sudden  in  mid-air 

mantling  with  light  rays, 

a  Marvellous  Tree, 

With  beams  the  brightest, 

the  pillared  beacon 

glittered  with  gold. 

Its  four  corners 

were  graced  with  fairest  gems, 

while  five  as  bright 

were  over  the  span  of  the  shoulder. 

All  the  Seraphs  beheld  it  wistful, 

Angel-hosts  of  endless  beauty. 

'Twas  no  wicked  outcast's  gallows, 

but  holy  Spirits 

hied  and  hasted  to  greet  it, 

with  men  of  our  mid  earth 

And  each  mystic  orb-king. 

I  sin-cankered 

eyed  that  Wuldor  stem 

shining  and  shimmering 

shrouded  with  hangings  and  gold 

flashing  with  bright  jewels 

in  lustrous  lines 

o'er  its  lordly  timber. 

Yet  saw  I  plainly 

through  its  golden  surface 

how  the  grim  ones  had  gashed  it. 

It  began  to  trickle  ; 

red  drops  from  its  right  side  starting. 

Rueful  anguish  then  o'erpowered  me 

I  feared  sorely  at  that  fairest  vision. 

As  I  gazed,  the  shivering  beacon 

all  changing,  weltered  heart-gore  sadly, 

and  oozing  sweat  the  rich  stem  crimsoned. 


1  Stopford  Brooke,  op.  cit.  ii.  137-143- 


296  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

So  I  lay  long 
looking  and  sighing, 
beholding  with  sorrow 
the  Healer's  tree ; 
till  at  last  its  outcry 
leapt  forth  loudly 
and  that  wood  most  blissful 
uttered  words. 

It  was  of  yore, 

even  yet  I  mind  it, 

when  I  was  hewen  down 

at  the  wood's  outskirt. 

By  axes  torn  from  the  bole 

burly  foemen  took  me  straightway. 

Then  gangs  of  thralls  lifting  me 

they  bore  me  on  their  bending  shoulders 

up  to  a  beetling  upland 

where  the  fierce  ones  fixed  me  upright. 

There  the  "Frea"  of  mankind  I  saw 

mightily  eager 

to  mount  me  trembling. 

But  I  durst  not,  against 

the  Drecten's  word 

bow  me  or  break, 

though  earth's  bosom  was  quaking. 

I  could  have  felled  them  all 

but  I  firmly  stood. 

The  youthful  hero, 

(lo  the  man  was  God  Almighty) ; 

strong  of  heart  and  steady  minded 

he  stept  on  the  lofty  gallows 

fearless  and  spite  that  crowd  of  faces. 

To  save  the  tribes  of  men  he  would  be  there. 

I  trembled  and  bevered  when  that  "baron"  clasped  me 

but  I  dared  not  look  me  earthward. 

'Twas  my  duty  to  stand  fast. 

**  Rood  "  was  I  thus  reared, 

bearing  the  Rich  King, 

the  Lord  of  Light-realms  ; 

and  I  durst  not  stoop. 

Dark-hued  nails  they  drove  thro'  me 

whose  deep  scars  men  can  see  here, 

open  chasms  made  by  hammers. 

Yet  to  kill  or  hurt  them  I  shuddered. 

They  mocked  and  handled  us  both, 

and  all  with  blood  was  I  bedabbled 

gushing  grievous  from  his  dear  side, 

when  his  ghost  he  up-rendered. 


APPENDIX   III  297  j 

,! 
For  days  on  that  hill  j 

was  I  sorely  troubled. 

For  days  I  saw  hanging  i 

the  God  of  hosts. 
Clouds  gloomy  and  swarthy 
covered  the  corpse  of  "the  Waldend," 
o'er  the  sheer  shine-path 

heavy  shadows  fell  i 

darkly  'neath  the  welkin.  I 

All  creation  wept 
and  wailed  the  loss  of  their  king  ! 
Christ  was  on  the  Rood-tree. 
But  fast  and  from  afar, 

his  friends  hasted  , 

to  help  their  atheling. 
I  saw  everything.  j 

Sorely  was  I  ! 

with  sorrows  harrowed, 

yet  humbly  I  inclined 

towards  the  hands  of  his  servants, 

striving  with  might  to  aid  them. 
'  Straight  they  took  the  all-ruling  God 

rescuing  him  from  that  dire  torment. 

Those  "Hilde-rinks"  now  left  me 

streaming  with  blood  drops  ; 

with  streals  was  I  all  wounded. 

They  laid  him  down  limb-weary. 

O'er  his  lifeless  head  they  stood,  1 

Gazing  eagerly  at  Heaven's  chieftain. 

The  holy  body  after  the  death  fight 

rested  awhile,  "moil-worn." 

Then  a  mould  house  {i.e.  a  grave)  they  dug. 

Out  of  bright  stone  blocks  they  carved  it. 

And  there  put  "the  Sovran  Victor,"  i 

and  sadly  sang  their  grave  lays,  .j 

through  that  eventide  ;  I 

sadly  did  they  carry  | 

their  Lord  their  Loving  Captain.  | 

Lonesome  was  his  narrow  chamber.  1 

•  •  *  *  I 

We  {i.e.  the  crosses)  awhile  1 

stood  on  that  steep. 

And  then  a  band  of  battle  men  j 

rose  up.  ' 

His  body  was  now  cold, 

and  his  fair  soul-house  was  sallow.  \ 

And  soon  they  cut  us  down  to  earth,  I 

awful  was  that  fall. 

They  then  delved  a  pit,  and  deeply  hid  us  in  it ;  1 

but  the  friendly  Drecten's  thanes 


298  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

f(iund  where  they  had  flung  us. 

Forth  they  drew  me 

and  gleefully  bedecked  me 

with  gold  and  silver. 

Thus  hear  thou 

dearest  heart-friend 

how  I  have  mournfully  borne 

sorest  sorrows 

from  these  miscreants. 

The  time  is  now  come 

when  far  and  wide 

men  o'er  this  mould 

worthily  honour  me. 

And  all  the  world  of  things 
bends  in  prayer  to  this  "beacon." 
Once  God's  bright  one 
P  suffered  on  my  substance. 

Hence  why  I  now  rise  up 

so  stately  under  heaven. 

And  can  heal  all 

who  are  "awed"  before  me. 

Once  was  I,  (and  it  was 

my  heaviest  penalty) 

in  each  land  most  loathsome. 

Ere  the  way  of  Life 

I  made  wide  and  open 

to  wise  and  foolish  ; 

but  the  Wuldor  Elder, 

Heaven's  guardian 

honoured  me 

more  than  any  hill  tree 

like  as  his  Mother 

Mary  herself 

whom  Almighty  God 

has  magnified 

before  each  one 

over  every  woman  ! 

and  now,   I  bid  thee 

dearest  heart  friend 

tire  not  to  tell  of  the  Tree  of  glory 

on  which  the  Prince  of  Peace 

suffered  his  passion 

for  the  many  sins 

of  Man's  children. 

For  the  olden  misdeeds 

of  Father  Adam. 

Death  he  there  tasted 

but  the  Drecten  thane  breaking 

with  his  mickle  might 

for  the  help  of  man. 


APPENDIX  III  299 

To  heaven  he  ascended. 

To  this  our  ** mid-earth" 

he  will  come  again 

to  visit  men 

on  the  Day  of  Doom. 

He  the  dread  one, 

God  Almighty, 

and  his  angels  with  him. 

He  who  hath  power  of  judgment 

will  so  judge  them, 

as  each  and  every  one, 

in  this  miserable  life 

their  deeds  they  merited. 

Pale  need  no  one  be 

nor  panic-stricken, 

at  the  words  which  then 

the  Waldend  will  speak. 

Be  there  any  creature 
who  for  God's  name's  sake 
will  give  Himself  up 
to  torment  and  death, 
as  on  the  Tree  He  did. 

No  one  need  be 

pale  and  panic-stricken, 

who  shall  bear  on  his  breast 

this  most  blessed  beacon. 

Thro'  the  cross  each  Christian 

may  reach  the  Kingdom 

and  his  soul  soar  from  earth  skyward, 

if  it  willeth  rightly 

to  abide  with  the  Waldend. 

Then  hied  I  to  the  beacon 

in  blithest  mood. 

And  with  all  my  heart 

where  I  lay  alone 

in  my  humble  homestead. 

Holy  musings 

filled  me  with  flame  thoughts. 

Now  the  hope  of  my  life 
is  ever  to  turn  to 
that  tree  of  Triumph. 

And  to  cling  to  the  Crucified. 
From  me  are  now  rent 
My  friends,  the  mightiest. 


300  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

They  have  sought  the  Wuldor  King 

and  found  a  harbour  in  heaven 

from  our  world's  pleasaunce, 

with  the  High  Father 

in  glee  and  glory. 

I  went  each  day  longingly, 

till  the  Lord's  Cross-tree 

on  our  earth's  platform, 

which  I  once  gazed  at 

from  the  lands  of  this  Care-world 

should  call  and  fetch  me 

should  take  me  yonder 

to  the  City  Celestial 

where  bliss  overfloweth. 

There  the  Saviour's  disciples 

sit  at  his  supper, 

and  there  is  song  for  ever. 

And  there  he  shall  place  me 

in  that  palace  wonderful 

where  the  King  shall  crown  me 

with  grace  and  glory 

among  God's  hallowed  ones. 

Christ  will  be  my  friend, 

who  on  earth  erewhile 

underwent  torture 

and  suffered  on  the  gibbet 

for  the  sins  of  men. 

He  uplifted  us  ; 

life  he  gave  us 

and  heavenly  habitations. 

Bliss  and  bloom  cheered  the  sad  one 

when  his  banner  reached  Hell. 


Splendid  was  his  on-march, 

mighty  and  magnificent 

when  he  came  with  multitudes 

of  ghostly  legions 

to  God's  high  kingdom. 

When  he  the  matchless  monarch! 

gave  mirth  to  his  angels, 

and  to  the  saints  his  saved  ones, 

who  were  seated  in  heaven 

and  dwelling  in  brightness. 

When  the  Weldend, 

God  Almighty 

came  to  his  old  home-halls.^ 

^  Stephens,  Runic  Monuments^  i.  423-429. 


APPENDIX  III  301 

Several  words  in  the  poem  are  here  given  in  their  old  form, 
and  need  a  gloss.     Thus  : — 

Dryhten  or  Drecten^  Lord,  Prince,  is  also  applied  to  Christ 
and  the  Father.  It  is  the  Scandinavian  Drotten,  and  comes 
from  the  verb  to  dree,  to  hold  out,  to  act  valiantly  and  enduringly.^ 

IVuldor^  from  the  same  root  as  Waldend,  wield  of  power, 
might,  majesty,  glory,  also  paradise. 

Atheling^  from  athel^  noble  =  nobling,  noble  youth,  prince, 
especially  applied  here  to  the  heir-apparent  or  a  prince  of  the 
blood  ;  hence  to  Christ. 

Bever,  to  quake  or  tremble. 

Frea,  the  Frey  of  the  Scandinavians,  the  god  of  Peace  and 
Bliss,  once  worshipped  on  Friday,  afterwards  used  as  an  epithet 
of  honour  for  a  prince  or  chieftain,  and  also  for  Christ  and  the 
Father. 

Bilde-rink,  hero  of  Hilde  (Bellona). 

Battle-brave^  captain,  soldier,  man.^ 
*  Stephens,  Runic  Monuments,  i.  429,  note.  -  lb.  429  and  430,  notes. 


APPENDIX    IV 

THE   MEMORIAL   CROSSES   OF   THE   SEVENTH 
CENTURY    IN   NORTHERN   ENGLAND 

Among  the  early  monuments  of  our  country  few  can  rival  in 
beauty,  in  artistic  interest,  and  in  historical  importance  the  finer 
stone  crosses  erected  in  Northern  England  in  early  days.  They 
have  recently  aroused  a  good  deal  of  attention,  and  have  given  rise 
to  some  theories  which  in  my  view  are  so  fantastic  and  so  contrary 
to  all  sound  induction  and  archaeological  good  sense  that  I  deem 
it  necessary  to  devote  some  pages  to  their  discussion.  This 
fantastic  writing  has  extended  to  their  date,  their  ornamentation, 
and  the  meaning  and  interpretation  of  their  inscriptions  where 
such  exist.  It  is  not  perhaps  singular  that  the  writers  who  have 
published  the  most  impossible  theories  about  them  have  not 
been  Englishmen  who  have  made  a  long  study  of  our  archaeology, 
and  have  in  consequence  learnt  how  to  treat  our  archaeological 
facts  in  rational  perspective,  but  foreigners,  who  have  had  a  very 
casual  knowledge  either  of  our  history  or  our  antiquities. 
America,  Germany,  and  Italy  have  all  furnished  critics  of  the 
subject,  whose  conclusions  are  largely  based  on  subjective 
methods  which  seem  to  ignore  the  most  elementary  facts  under- 
lying the  issue.     Let  us  now  see  what  these  facts  are. 

In  the  first  place,  these  crosses  are  all  clearly  Christian.  The 
fact  that  the  cross  is  occasionally  found  as  an  ornament  in  early 
pagan  structures  is  true,  but  that  fact  has  no  connection  with 
our  issue.  Stone  crosses,  used  as  memorials  or  set  up  as 
symbolic  emblems  in  early  times  in  various  places  in  Britain,  are 
unmistakable  signs  of  Christian  culture  and  are  so  accepted  by 
everybody. 

Secondly,  such  early  Christian  crosses  as  specially  concern 
us  here  are  limited  to  certain  geographical  areas.  In  regard  to 
England  they  are  only  found  in  the  North  and  in  the  West,  and 
are  virtually  absent,  or  very  scarce,  from  Wessex,  Mercia  south  of 
the  Mersey  and  the  Trent,  and  East  Anglia.  The  district,  how- 
ever, where  they  abound  is  almost  entirely  that  situated  within 

302 


APPENDIX   IV  3C3 

the  boundaries  of  the  kingdoms  of  Northumbria  and  Northern 
Mercia. 

Northumbria  was  divided  into  two  sections  by  the  river  Tees, 
each  of  which  was  for  a  while,  as  we  have  seen,  an  independent 
kingdom,  and  later  a  sharply  contrasted  province.  The  northern 
one  was  called  Bernicia,  and  the  southern  one  Deira  ;  the  former 
answering  to  the  modern  counties  of  Northumberland,  Durham, 
Cumberland,  Westmoreland,  and  Lancashire  north  of  the  Lune, 
and  the  latter  to  the  county  of  York. 

In  describing  the  great  wooden  cross  set  up  by  King  Oswald 
at  Heavenfield,  near  Hexham,  where  he  defeated  and  killed  the 
British  King  Caed walla  in  the  year  635,  Bede  says  :  "  As  we  have 
understood,  there  was  no  sign  of  the  Christian  faith,  no  church, 
no  altar  erected  throughout  all  the  nation  of  the  Bernicians, 
before  that  new  commander  of  the  army,  prompted  by  the 
devotion  of  his  faith,  set  up  the  banner  of  the  cross  as  he  was 
going  to  give  battle  to  his  barbarous  enemy."  ^ 

The  year  635,  therefore,  is  a  notable  date  as  a  terminus  a  quo 
in  fixing  the  chronology  of  the  crosses  of  Bernicia.  In  regard  to 
Deira,  or  Yorkshire,  the  possibilities  are  somewhat  different,  since 
that  area  was  the  scene  of  the  labours  of  a  Christian  mission 
in  the  earlier  reign  of  King  ^dwin,  under  Paulinus  and  his 
protege  James  the  Deacon.  In  a  work  on  St.  Augustine  the 
Missionary,  which  I  recently  published,  I  followed  the  current 
view  that  one  or  two  of  the  Yorkshire  crosses  and  those  at 
Whalley  in  Lancashire  may  have  been  contemporary  memorials 
of  the  mission  of  Paulinus.  I  now  think  this  is  unlikely,  and 
that  they  were  probably  set  up  some  years  afterwards  as 
memorials  of  the  proto-evangelist  of  Northumbria.  No  such 
memorials  mark  anywhere  the  mission  of  Augustine  in  the 
South,  and  as  Paulinus  was  a  Roman  by  origin  and  belonged  to 
that  mission,  it  is  unlikely  that  he  would  have  adopted  the 
practice  in  the  North,  nor  do  any  of  these  stone  crosses  recall 
the  ornament  and  style  derived  from  Rome  or  known  in  Italy  or 
Gaul  at  that  time.  I  now  believe  that  all  these  stone  crosses  are 
of  a  later  date. 

The  first  memorial  crosses  existing  in  the  North  about  whose 
date  there  can  be  no  doubt  are  those  which  were  found  at 
Hartlepool  and  elsewhere,  which  are  ear-marked  as  to  date  and 
significance  by  their  inscriptions  as  well  as  by  their  style.  I 
have  already  described  them  and  discussed  their  inscriptions, 
^  Bede,  Eccl.  Hist.,  iii.  ch.  2. 


304  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

which  show  that  they  belong  to  the  second  half  of  the  seventh 
century.  They  are  unmistakably  of  Irish  origin  and  due  to 
the  mission  of  St.  Aidan.  I  have  given  figures  of  some 
of  them,  and  also  a  representation  of  specimens  of  some  from 
Ireland  in  the  plates.  A  cross  of  similar  style  is  preserved 
on  a  slab  at  Jarrow,  and  was  doubtless  the  foundation-stone 
of  the  church.  A  fragment  of  a  cross  also  of  the  same  type 
was  found  by  Dr.  Greenwell  at  Bellingham,  near  Durham,  and 
is  now  in  the  British  Museum.  It  is  inscribed  "  Orate  pro  F." 
My  friend,  Professor  Lethaby,  says  of  this  inscription  :  "  It  is 
written  in  beautiful  minuscules  that  must  have  been  written  by 
a  learned  scribe.  ...  A  fragment  of  a  cross  from  Dewsbury  in 
the  same  museum  is  also  inscribed  in  good  minuscules,  and  it 
cannot  be  far  removed  in  age  from  the  other.  Its  date  must  be 
about  700." 

It  is  not  these  small  funereal  crosses,  however,  that  are  oc- 
cupying us  now,  and  we  will  turn  to  the  real  purpose  of  this 
essay,  namely,  the  discussion  of  some  of  the  magnificent  series 
of  crosses  and  cross  fragments  which  have  been  found  in 
Northumbria,  of  which  the  most  notable  are  those  at  Bewcastle 
and  Ruthwell,  which  are  such  splendid  examples  and  which  really 
mark  a  great  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  ornamental  art  of  this 
realm.  Such  crosses  seem  to  have  been  put  up  partly  to  mark 
sacred  spots  where  baptisms  and  other  services  were  afterwards 
held  by  the  itinerant  missionaries,  or  as  memorials,  etc.  In  the 
life  of  St.  Willibald,  who  was  born  about  the  year  700,  we  read 
that  when  he  was  about  three  years  old  his  parents  made  a 
dedication  of  him  before  the  great  cross  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 
"  For  it  is  the  custom  of  the  Saxon  race  that  on  many  of  the 
estates  of  nobles  and  of  good  men,  they  are  wont  to  have,  not  a 
church,  but  the  standard  of  the  Holy  Cross,  dedicated  to  our 
Lord  and  reverenced  with  great  honour,  lifted  up  on  high."  Let 
us  now  turn  to  the  date  of  these  crosses. 

Before  dealing  with  the  question  directly,  I  should  like  to  say 
a  few  words  about  the  theories  which  have  been  enunciated  by 
some  foreign  archaeologists,  and  notably  by  an  American  writer, 
Professor  Cook,  and  by  others  who  seem  to  me  to  be  entirely 
unconscious  of  the  immense  mass  of  work  that  has  been  done 
by  English  archaeologists,  who  have  worked  for  several  decades 
on  strictly  inductive  lines  to  illuminate  and  trace  the  origin  and 
progress  of  English  art.  These  foreign  critics  have,  so  far  as  can 
be  judged,  only  an  elementary  knowledge  of  our  monuments. 


APPExNDIX   IV  305 

It  is  forgotten  by  some  archajologists  that  that  science  is 
only  a  branch  of  history,  and  that  a  preliminary  study  of  the 
history  of  a  country  is  absolutely  necessary  if  we  are  to  explain, 
and  especially  to  date,  its  monuments.  First,  then,  I  would 
explain  the  very  elementary  fact  that  English  history  is  divided 
sharply  into  two  great  provinces  by  the  Norman  Conquest. 
That  conquest  displaced  the  nobles  and  gentry  of  this  realm 
(that  is,  the  educated  classes)  almost  en  bloc.  Its  effect  on  the 
personnel  of  the  Church  was  almost  as  great  as  it  was  in  regard 
to  the  civil  grandees.  French-speaking  and  thinking  priests  filled 
most  of  the  dioceses  and  rapidly  monopolised  the  canonries  and 
other  dignified  posts.  Some  of  the  monasteries  retained  for  a 
while  their  English  complexion,  nor  did  the  speech  of  the 
country  begin  to  change  for  a  time,  otherwise  the  life  of 
the  educated  people  and  the  priesthood  changed  almost  entirely. 
Architecture  and  the  other  arts  received  a  new  impetus  and 
developed  greatly. 

By  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  the  change  had  become 
very  marked  in  all  these  matters,  and,  as  is  well  known,  the  old 
language  had  then  become  so  obsolete  that  Latin  translations  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  became  necessary,  works  composed 
in  Anglo-Saxon  entirely  ceased  to  be  written,  while  the  ver- 
nacular speech  became  almost  entirely  disused  in  the  scrip- 
toria of  the  monks.  Meanwhile  England  became  covered  with 
fair  minsters  and  parish  churches,  of  which  large  numbers 
remain,  which  have  been  minutely  studied  and  their  architectural 
and  sculptural  details  classified  and  described.  It  is  doubtful, 
indeed,  whether  there  is  anything  new  to  learn  of  any  moment 
in  regard  to  the  arts  of  the  twelfth  century  in  England. 

Now  it  is  to  the  twelfth  century  that  the  Commendatore 
Rivoira  ^  and  Professor  Cook  ^  attribute  such  splendid  and 
unique  monuments  of  art  as  the  great  Northern  memorial 
crosses.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  (and  I  am  sure  I  shall 
be  supported  by  every  English  writer  having  any  claim  to 
authority  on  the  question  of  the  history  of  English  art,  especially 
ecclesiastical  art)  that  there  is  no  single  feature  about  these  crosses 
or  their  ornamentation  which  in  the  least  resembles  English  artistic 
work  of  the  twelfth  century  or  can  be  found  in  any  work  attested 

^  Lombardic    Architecture    (1910),     vol.    ii.     p.     143;    and    Bttrlington 
Magazine,  April  191 2. 

2  "The  Date  of  the  Ruthwell  and  Bewcastle  Crosses,"  Trans.  Conn.  Acad, 
of  Arts  and  ScieticeSy  Dec.  1912. 
VOL.  III. — 20 


306  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

by  documentary  evidence  to  belong  to  the  twelfth  century  in  any 
part  of  these  realms.  Nor,  may  I  say  very  emphatically,  can 
anything  like  it  be  found  in  remains  of  that  date  in  any  part  of 
continental  Europe.  I  had  written  this  when  I  met  with  the 
following  sentence  in  which  my  friend,  Sir  Moncure  Conway,  has 
expressed  with  his  usual  facile  pen  the  general  conclusion  which 
most,  if  not  all,  archaeologists  in  this  country  have  reached 
on  the  issue  before  us.  He  says:  "Take  a  photograph  of 
either  the  Ruthwell  or  the  Bewcastle  cross,  which  Professor 
Cook  would  assign  to  the  twelfth  century,  and  place  beside 
it  a  photograph  of  any  undoubted  work  of  twelfth-century 
decorative  sculpture,  they  will  at  once  be  seen  to  be  expressive 
of  different  worlds.  The  ideal  behind  the  one  is  not  the  ideal 
behind  the  other." 

Let  us  now  turn  from  the  character  of  the  art  on  these 
monuments  to  another,  perhaps  an  even  more  effective,  argument. 
The  principal  crosses  we  are  dealing  with  are  inscribed ;  they  not 
only  have  the  names  of  well-known  kings  and  saints  upon  them, 
but  also  have  whole  sentences,  and  in  one  case  a  large  section 
of  a  fine  poem.  First,  in  regard  to  the  names.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  to  the  early  Norman  conquerors  the  history 
of  their  predecessors  and  their  literature  in  the  vernacular  was 
not  only  inaccessible  but  hateful.  The  Anglo-Saxon  kings  and 
saints  were  no  heroes  to  them.  They  did  not  know  their  names 
except  in  two  or  three  conspicuous  cases,  and  they  cared  nothing 
about  their  deeds.  So  far  did  this  extend  that  in  the  case  of  a 
majority  of  the  churches  the  dedications  were  changed  from  those 
of  Saxon  saints  to  other  saints  especially  favoured  by  the  Normans, 
and  so  far  as  we  can  see,  the  change  effected  by  the  Conquest 
of  1066  was  as  far-reaching  and  complete  in  England  as  the 
French  Revolution  was  when  it  replaced  the  ancient  regime. 

How  is  it,  then,  that  on  these  crosses  not  a  single  Norman 
name  occurs,  either  of  prince  or  priest  or  saint,  not  one  ?  They 
are  all  Anglian  names. 

Not  only  so,  but  the  great  bulk  of  them  are  names  of  more 
or  less  obscure  persons  who  had  entirely  passed  out  of  living 
memory  and  whose  very  existence  has  only  been  rediscovered 
in  modern  times.  How  could  it  enter  the  imagination  of  any 
man,  however  fantastic,  to  suppose  that  in  the  twelfth  century 
wealthy  Norman  chiefs  or  churchmen  (only  men  of  wealth  could 
have  paid  for  such  monuments)  were  urged  by  an  afflatus  for 
commemorating   in   this   magnificent   fashion  a  whole   bevy  of 


APPENDIX  IV  307 

people  who  had  passed  away  several  centuries  before,  and  were 
no  longer  remembered  by  any  one  ? 

Again,  these  names  and  inscriptions  are  written  in  two  forms 
of  script,  some  of  them  in  runic  characters  and  some  in  Roman 
minuscules.  Who  that  has  any  knowledge  of  our  history  could 
suppose  that  inscriptions  could  have  been  written  at  all  in  English 
ru?ies  in  England  in  the  twelfth  century;  a  fortiori,  inscriptions 
written  so  accurately?  The  only  instance  of  runes  known  to 
me  in  England  from  so  late  a  date  as  the  twelfth  century  is  that 
of  the  inscription  on  the  font  at  Bride  Kirk,  which  is  situated  in 
a  very  Scandinavian  part  of  England.  The  runes  on  this 
inscription,  however,  are  not  English  runes  at  all,  but  Scandi- 
navian ones,  and  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  runes  on  the 
crosses.  The  whole  notion  can  only  have  occurred  to  one 
unfamiliar  with  the  history  of  our  monuments.  The  forms  of 
the  Roman  letters  also  used  in  the  inscriptions  are  just  as  in- 
consistent with  their  belonging  to  the  twelfth  century  as  the 
runes,  for  they  are  written  in  Irish  minuscules  quite  unknown 
to  Norman  scribes. 

Thirdly,  in  regard  to  the  inscriptions  other  than  names,  and 
especially  the  poetry.  Who  was  there  in  the  twelfth  century  who 
could  have  written  the  Northumbrian  tongue  in  this  fashion  so 
accurately  and,  as  we  have  seen,  in  so  early  a  form  ?  Who,  again, 
was  to  read  it  when  written? — it  was  quite  obsolete  at  that  date 
and  long  before  that  date.  What  purpose,  what  motive  could  have 
induced  these  Normans  to  set  up  in  out-of-the-way  villages  and  in 
mountain  graveyards  these  most  costly  monuments  in  memory 
of  forgotten  people  and  in  a  speech  which  no  one  could  read  ? 

The  fact  is  that,  instead  of  setting  up  crosses  in  this  fashion 
and  taste,  the  early  Normans  ruthlessly  destroyed  them,  in 
their  widespread  efforts,  which  were  especially  potent  in  the 
twelfth  century,  to  replace  the  more  or  less  humble  Anglian 
churches  by  the  great  Norman  minsters  and  parish  churches  of 
the  twelfth  century  which  especially  abound  in  our  land. 

On  this  matter  my  acute  friend  (who  did  so  much  for 
the  illustration  of  early  art  in  these  realms),  Romilly  Allen, 
wrote :  "  The  Normans  showed  but  little  respect  for  the 
sepulchral  monuments  of  their  Celtic  and  Saxon  predecessors, 
and  when  about  to  erect  a  church  or  cathedral  the  first  thing 
they  did  was  to  break  up  all  the  crosses  which  were  on  or  near 
the  site  and  use  them  as  wall-stones."  ^ 

^  Vict.  Hist,  of  Northamptonshire^  ii.  191,  note. 


308   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

These  historical  considerations  seem  to  me  to  be  entirely 
conclusive,  and  to  be  much  more  weighty  than  any  but  the 
clearest  archaeological  testimony.  Now  it  happens  that  Professor 
Cook's  dating  of  the  ornamentation  on  these  crosses  is  quite 
impossible.  Professor  C.  Balfour  Brown,  in  his  answer  to  his 
contention  that  they  belong  to  the  twelfth  century,  says  "It 
might  more  easily  present  itself  to  one  who  regards  these 
crosses  as  isolated  objects,  than  to  those  who  know  them  as 
they  really  are,  only  the  most  elaborate  and  beautiful  of  a  series 
of  monuments  similar  in  kind,  the  number  of  which  must 
run  into  the  thousands,  for  there  are  no  fewer  than  five  hundred 
in  Yorkshire  alone.  .  .  .  Professor  Cook  takes  no  note  of  the  fact 
that  a  good  many  of  the  stones  have  come  to  light  in  a  fragment- 
ary condition,  used  as  building  material  in  mediaeval  walls,  some 
of  which  are  of  pre-Conquest  date."  ^  As  one  example  out  of 
many.  Professor  Brown  cites  the  case  of  the  west  wall  of  the 
church  of  Kirkdale,  in  Yorkshire,  which  is  dated  by  the  famous 
inscribed  sun-dial  to  within  a  year  or  two  of  1060  a.d.  This 
had  built  into  it,  low  down,  a  beautiful  tomb  slab  with  char- 
acteristic foliage  scroll-work  of  the  Anglian  type.  On  some  of 
Professor  Cook's  judgments  on  archaeology  which  led  him  to  put 
the  crosses  into  the  twelfth  century,  Professor  Brown  has  some 
useful  comments.  Thus  in  regard  to  the  representation  of  the 
Baptist  and  the  Agnus  Dei,  of  which  Professor  Cook  writes  that  it 
cannot,  according  to  indication,  be  earlier  than  the  twelfth  century, 
his  critic  reminds  him  that  in  another  passage  he  had  himself 
mentioned  an  early  monument,  probably  of  the  sixth  century, 
the  ivory  chair  of  Maximian  at  Ravenna,  on  which  the  principal 
figure  is  a  John  the  Baptist  with  a  lamb  of  the  very  type  found 
on  the  crosses.  In  regard  to  the  representation  of  the  Annunci- 
ation and  the  Visitation,  Dr.  Stuhlfauth  has  specially  emphasised 
the  fact  (as  confirmatory  of  the  early  date  of  the  Ruthwell  cross) 
that  the  primitive  Syro-Palestinian  type  of  the  Annunciation  with 
the  standing  Mary  makes  its  appearance  on  that  monument ; 
while  the  Visitation  occurs  on  the  golden  medallions  from  Adana 
at  Constantinople,  published  by  Dr.  Strzygofski,  and  which  are 
of  the  sixth  and  seventh  century,  and  is  also  represented  on 
the  chair  of  Maximian.  The  flight  into  Egypt,  says  Professor 
Brown,  which  according  to  Professor  Cook  does  not  appear  in 
Christian  art  till  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century,  occurs  in  these 
medallions  in  a  form  that  reminds  us  curiously  of  the  relief  on 
^  Burlington  Magazine,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  44. 


APPENDIX  IV  309 

the  Ruthwell  cross,  with  the  tree  that  is  placed  above  the  head  of 
the  ass.i  It  also  occurs  at  St.  Maria  Maggiore.^  The  Christ 
which  occurs  in  the  scene  of  the  washing  of  the  feet  of  Christ  by 
the  woman  of  Samaria  on  the  Ruthwell  cross  is  very  like  the 
glorified  Christ  on  both  the  great  western  crosses,  and  is  an  early 
type.  In  reply  to  the  American  Professor's  remark  about  the 
representation  of  the  Crucifixion  which  occurs  on  the  Ruthwell 
cross,  and  which  he  says  is  first  found  in  a  seventh-century  Roman 
painting,  Professor  Brown  reminds  him  that  he  has  overlooked  its 
representation  on  the  wooden  doors  of  St.  Sabina  at  Rome,  and 
on  a  British  Museum  ivory,  both  of  the  fifth  century  ;  and  in  both 
cases  the  Saviour  is  shown  lightly  clad,  as  on  the  Ruthwell  cross. 
This  Christ  in  the  attitude  of  benediction  also  occurs  on  the 
wooden  coffin  of  St.  Cuthbert  at  Durham.  Lastly,  in  regard  to  the 
royal  falconer,  "  who  is  represented  on  the  Ruthwell  cross  wearing 
long  hair.  Everybody,"  says  Professor  Brown,  "  knows  that  the 
Normans  cut  their  hair  short  like  priests,  and  their  heads  were 
shaven  at  the  back,  as  is  shown  on  the  Bayeux  tapestry,  while 
the  Saxons  were  characterised  by  an  ample  chivelure^  ^ 

Summing  up  the  results  of  his  analysis,  Professor  Brown  says 
that  "An  examination  of  Professor  Cook's  critique  on  the 
carving  of  the  crosses  leads  to  exactly  the  opposite  result  to  that 
he  aimed  at,  as  it  tends  to  confirm  the  view  of  their  early  date, 
and  at  any  rate  to  place  them  convincingly  in  the  Saxon 
period.  .  .  .  The  single  fact  that  in  all  the  foliage  of  the  two 
crosses  there  is  nowhere  a  trace  of  the  classical  acanthus  seems 
almost  to  force  one  to  place  them  earlier  than  the  Carlovingian 
renaissance."^ 

I  do  not  propose  to  say  another  word  about  this  twelfth- 
century  delusion.  Let  us  now  turn  to  pre-Conquest  days. 
Here,  again,  we  can  divide  English  history  into  two  notable 
sections,  separated  by  great  race-changes  and  otherwise. 

During  the  ninth  century  England  was  persistently  invaded 
and  harassed  by  the  most  cruel  invasion  which  ever  tormented 
it,  namely,  the  Danes  and  Norsemen.  They  destroyed  nearly  all 
the  monasteries  in  the  country  and  a  large  part  of  the  churches, 
and  for  one  hundred  years  the  poverty-stricken  and  impoverished 
country  could  build  no  fresh  ones,  so  that  there  is  a  great  hiatus 
of  a  whole  century  in    English  art   during   the   ninth    century. 

^  Burlington  Magazine,  xxiii.  44. 

-  Circa  435  ;  Lethaby,  Burlington  Magazine,  xxiii.  49. 

3/^.43-45.  •*  7^.45. 


3  I  o  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Especially  was  this  destruction  felt  in  its  richest  and  most 
flourishing  part,  namely,  Northumbria,  where  the  pagan  piratical 
invaders  displaced  the  older  landowners  and  divided  the  land 
among  them.  Christianity  was  really  only  restored  there  after 
the  baptism  of  Canute.  Between  the  accession  of  Canute  and 
the  Norman  Conquest  there  was  a  certain  renaissance  of 
English  art.  Churches  were  again  built,  some  on  a  larger  and 
more  ornamented  scale  than  before,  and  crosses  were  also 
erected.  These  crosses,  however,  were  decorated  with  a  different 
kind  of  ornament  to  those  existing  on  the  crosses  we  are  dis- 
cussing. 

Apart  from  this,  the  inscriptions  on  the  latter  are  quite  incon- 
sistent with  their  having  belonged  to  the  post-Danish  conquest. 
The  runes  that  are  found  on  the  later  crosses  belong  to  another 
type  of  rune,  namely,  that  which  prevailed  in  Scandinavia,  as  we 
should  expect  from  their  Danish  origin,  and  are  not  of  the  English 
type  such  as  we  find  on  the  Bewcastle  and  other  similar  crosses. 
The  language  on  the  latter  series  of  crosses  is  also  quite  incon- 
sistent with  their  being  post-Danish.  It  is  pure  Northumbrian 
of  an  early  type,  and  contains  neither  Danish  words  nor  traces 
of  Danish  syntax  such  as  occur  on  the  later  crosses,  when  the 
speech  of  Yorkshire  had  become  Dano-English.  The  na?nes 
recorded  on  the  older  crosses,  again,  are  purely  English  names 
written  in  their  Northumbrian  form  ;  not  one  of  them  is  a  Danish 
name,  and,  as  I  have  said,  many  of  them  are  names  of  obscure 
persons  and  not  the  least  likely  to  have  been  commemorated 
on  monuments  by  the  Danish  landowners  of  Yorkshire  in  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  century,  who  were  separated  completely  in 
tradition  from  the  older  men,  not  only  by  their  belonging  to 
another  race  but  by  the  hundred  years  of  restored  paganism. 

All  this  was  apparehtly  unknown  to  Dr.  Sophus  Miiller,  a 
deservedly  high  authority  on  Danish  antiquities,  but  with  no 
special  or  direct  knowledge  of  our  archeology  and,  what  is 
also  much  more  important,  ignorant  also  of  our  history.  In 
a  work  entitled  Dyre  ornamentiken  i  JVorden,  published  at 
Copenhagen  in  1880,  he  dates  our  crosses  not  earlier  than  the 
year  1000,  on  the  astonishing  ground  that  their  decoration 
belongs  to  the  late  Carlovingian  period,  with  which  it  has  in 
fact  no  connection  whatever,  in  style  or  otherwise.  Nothing 
can  be  plainer  than  that  none  of  the  crosses  of  the  type  we  are 
discussing  have  anything  to  do  with  the  ninth,  tenth,  or  eleventh 
centuries.     Thus    by  a   process  of  exhaustion  we  are   obliged 


The  Figure  of  the  Saviour  on  the  Rushworth  and  Bewcastle 
Crosses,  showinc  the  same  Treatment. 


[/W.  11  r.,  facing  p.  310. 


APPENDIX  IV  311 

to  treat  the  close  of  the  eighth  century  as  the  ter?ninus  ad  quern 
of  our  journey. 

Let  us  therefore  turn  to  the  earh'est  period  of  Northumbrian 
Christian  history,  and  especially  to  that  which  intervened  between 
the  advent  of  the  Celtic  monks  under  Aidan  in  the  seventh  century 
and  year  800.     Here  we  have  a  different  story  to  tell.     All  the 
reasons  which  I  have  quoted  as  conclusively  proving  the  impossi- 
bility of  these  crosses  having  been  erected  later  than  the  year  800, 
converge  upon  the  probability,  or  rather  certainty,  that  they  were 
erected  before  the  year  800.     The  runic  letters  on  them  belong 
to  that  period,  the  language  on  them  is  exactly  of  that  period, 
the  known  names  on  them  are  all  of  persons  who  lived  at  that 
period,  and  the  poetry  which  occurs  on  the  finest  of  them  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  composed  by  a  Northumbrian  poet  who  lived 
in  that  period ;  nor  do  I  know  of  a  single  fact  or  argument  that 
is  opposed  to  that  conclusion  except  arguments  drawn  from  a 
priori  and  subjective  considerations,  and  which  are  all  full  of 
stupendous    difficulties.     I   shall  take  it  for  granted,  therefore, 
that  the  crosses  we  are  discussing  were  erected  in  the  seventh 
or   eighth    century.     If  we  concede    this    we   must  reasonably 
further  insist  that  they  were  erected  during  the  lifetime  or  very 
soon  after  the  death   of  those  commemorated  upon  them   or 
bearing  their  names.     It  is  mere  arbitrary  wilfulness  to  discard 
this  evidence  without  some  kind  of  reason.     So  far  as  I  know 
there  is  no  assignable  reason  which  can  be  supported  by  argu- 
ment in  favour   of  dating   these    crosses  at   any   other  period 
than  that  attested  by  the  names  occurring  on  them  and  by  all  the 
other  facts  we  know  about  them.     Let  me  quote  two  instances 
drawn  from  some  of  the  biggest  and  most  important  of  these 
crosses. 

First,  that  at  Bewcastle,  with  which  the  Ruthwell  cross  is 
closely  associated.  As  we  saw,  this  cross  is  expressly  dated  in 
the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  King  Ecgfrid — that  is,  in  the  year 
670,  and  I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  it  was  erected  in  that 
year. 

The  second  of  these  monuments  which  I  would  mention 
is  Trumwine's  cross  at  Abercorn.  Trumwine  was  appointed 
Bishop  of  the  Picts  at  Abercorn  in  the  year  681.  The  Pictish 
Mission  Church  came  to  an  end  in  684,  when  Trumwine  was 
driven  away,  having  been  the  first  and  last  Anglo-Pictish 
Bishop.  This  cross  must,  therefore,  have  been  set  up  between 
68 1  and  684.     It  is  quite  incredible  that  it  could  have  been  set 


3 1 2   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

up  after  the  latter  date,  when  the  Picts  killed  King  Ecgfrith  and 
put  an  end  to  the  domination  of  the  Northumbrians  over  their 
people.  The  last  thing  the  Picts  would  have  done  would  have 
been  to  set  up  a  cross  in  honour  of  a  Northumbrian  bishop 
whom  they  had  expelled. 

Thirdly  and  lastly,  I  would  quote  Acca's  cross,  formerly  at 
Hexham  and  now  at  Durham,  which  bears  his  name.  His 
career  as  bishop  ranges  from  709  to  740. 

These  three  crosses,  being  among  the  three  most  important 
both  in  size  and  in  ornamentation  of  all  the  Northumbrian  ones, 
clearly  belong  to  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh  and  the  very 
beginning  of  the  eighth  century.  This  is  also  the  view  of  the 
former  Slade  Professor,  my  friend  Sir  Martin  Conway,  who  says 
of  the  two  great  Western  crosses :  "  For  me  they  belong  to  the 
late  seventh  or  early  eighth  century  and  nowhere  else — late 
Celtic  for  choice."  ^  So  far  as  we  know,  they  are  among  the  very 
earliest  of  these  crosses,  and  it  is  no  doubt  a  notable  fact 
and  one  to  be  carefully  remembered,  that  being  very  early 
examples  they  yet  offer  us  specimens  of  the  very  highest  and 
most  tasteful  decoration  which  occurs  on  this  type  of  cross. 
There  is  no  sign  whatever  of  immaturity  or  of  a  prentice  hand 
among  them,  and  whoever  made  them  and  whencesoever  they 
came  the  artificers  were  very  skilled  workmen  as  well  as  artists, 
and  must  somewhere  have  had  some  excellent  models. 

The  next  question  that  arises  is,  who  were  these  artists  and 
whence  did  they  come  ?  The  question  is  a  very  difficult  one  to 
answer.  We  may,  however,  by  a  process  of  exclusion  limit  the 
problem  considerably. 

It  is  perfectly  plain  that  these  crosses  and  the  ornaments 
they  bear  were  not  developed  out  of  anything  previously  existing 
in  these  islands.  Nothing  like  them  is  to  be  found  at  an  earlier 
date  either  in  England,  Ireland,  or  Scotland,  and  yet  they 
appear  here  not  in  an  immature  and  elementary  form,  but  in 
full-blown  beauty,  the  earliest  ones  being  the  most  perfect, 
most  beautiful,  and  most  important  from  their  size  and  dis- 
tinction. It  is  equally  plain  that  we  can  find  nothing  like 
them  in  the  West  of  Europe.  They  are  non-existent  in  Germany, 
France,  or  south  of  the  Pyrenees,  notably  in  France,  whence  so 
much  of  our  early  artistic  work,  our  buildings,  church  furniture, 
plate,  etc.,  were  derived. 

Italy  at  this  time  was  a  land  of  desolation  and  decrepitude. 
^  Burlington  Magazine^  vol.  xxiv.  pp.  85  and  86. 


Portion  of  a  Cross  found  at  Jedburgh. 

From  Stuart's  Monumental  Stones  of  Scotland.     To  be  (oiiipared  with  the 
Bevvcastle  Cross  and  the  Fragments  at  Hexham. 


\\'ol.  1 11.^  facing  p.  31 


APPENDIX  IV  313 

Goths,  Vandals,  and  the  early  Lombards  had  trampled  upon  it  in 
all  directions,  and  such  times  were  not  consistent  with  the  rise  or 
development  of  a  kind  of  ornament  both  strong  and  artistic. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Lombards  were  still  in  their  barbarous 
condition,  only  recently  converted  to  orthodoxy,  and  had  not  yet 
developed  their  architectural  skill  of  a  later  time. 

It  is  plain,  in  fact,  that  the  only  parts  of  Italy  where  the  arts 
maintained  a  certain  lethargic  and  crystallised  form  were  those 
immediately  influenced  by  Byzantium  through  its  colony  at 
Ravenna,  or  which  had  spread  at  second  hand  thence.  Some 
people  have  suggested  as  possible  that  Ravenna  may  have  been 
the  source  of  the  art  of  the  great  Northumbrian  crosses.  I 
cannot  for  a  moment  accept  this.  The  art  which  most  of  us 
know  well  and  which  flourished  at  Ravenna  was  attractive 
and  original  in  its  aims  and  products,  but  it  had,  so  far  as 
I  can  see,  no  direct  connection  with  that  displayed  on  these 
crosses.  The  figures  and  the  interlaced  tracery  of  vines  with 
small  animals  among  the  branches  are  differently  treated  to 
anything  known  to  me  at  Ravenna,  nor  can  we  well  see  what 
could  induce  any  artists  or  patrons  of  art  to  come  hither  from 
Ravenna,  whose  Archbishop  and  whose  people,  although  orthodox, 
were  on  bad  terms  with  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  at  Rome, 
and  were  very  seclusive.  At  this  time,  again,  in  Ravenna  they 
were  shut  off  from  intercourse  with  the  West  by  the  unruly 
Lombards  and  many  other  difficulties,  and  we  have  no  evidence 
that  they  were  in  communication  with  the  West. 

We  are  driven,  therefore,  to  seek  for  our  explanation  farther 
afield,  however  difficult  the  process  may  at  first  sight  appear. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  when  the  Mohammedans  made 
their  terrible  onslaught  on  the  Empire  in  the  time  of  Heraclius 
and  his  family  the  areas  where  the  arts  were  most  flourishing 
and  perhaps  most  fresh  and  living  were  Syria,  Asia  Minor, 
and  Egypt.  In  regard  to  the  former  districts  our  eyes  have 
been  immensely  opened  of  late  years,  and  we  have  been  shown 
how  there  had  been  a  renaissance  there  in  the  times  succeeding 
the  great  Constantine,  which  had  produced  a  very  decided 
advance  in  the  methods  of  building  in  which  architectural  and 
mechanical  processes  and  developments  had  taken  place,  re- 
sembling in  a  measure  the  similar  movement  we  call  the  Italian 
renaissance. 

This  was  accompanied  by  a  similar  growth  in  the  style  of 
ornament   which   we  find   so  largely   developed   in   the   minor 


3  r  4  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

elements  of  the  churches'  furniture,  such  as  the  sarcophagi,  etc. 
Like  other  similar  movements,  this  was  doubtless  not  a 
spontaneous  growth,  but  the  result  of  a  graft  and  of  fresh  ideas, 
in  this  case  from  the  very  flourishing  and  artistically  remarkable 
Sassanian  Empire.  The  combination  of  this  with  the  traditions 
of  Old  Rome  produced  especially  in  Asia  Minor  and  Syria  a 
new  kind  of  artistic  growth  which  has  been  much  illustrated  by 
the  researches  of  Strzygofski  and  Miss  Bell. 

A  contemporary  and  similar  development  was  meanwhile  tak- 
ing place  among  the  Christian  Copts  of  Egypt,  which  has  been  a 
revelation  to  us  all,  and  has  been  especially  illustrated  by  my 
friend  Mr.  Somers  Clarke  and  others.  It  is  in  these  areas,  and 
these  only  so  far  as  my  knowledge  goes,  that  the  kind  of  decor- 
ative art  which  occurs  in  the  early  Northern  crosses  is  to  be 
found,  and  especially  is  this  so  in  the  Coptic  remains,  which  have 
been  attracting  more  and  more  attention  of  late  years  and  of 
which  some  attractive  samples  have  found  their  way  to  this 
country  recently.  The  first  temptation  among  many  people  will 
be  to  treat  this  provenance  for  our  seventh-century  Northern 
art  as  in  a  measure  a  fantastic  notion,  but  some  consideration 
may  perhaps  modify  this  view,  especially  as  by  a  process  of 
exhaustion  it  seems  impossible  to  solve  the  paradox  in  any  other 
way. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  we  must  remember  that  the  seventh 
century  was  the  great  era  of  the  primitive  monks  and  anchorites, 
who  were  then  seized  with  an  indescribable  fervour  for  the 
monastic  life.  The  result  was  to  break  down  all  kinds  of 
geographical  boundaries  and  frontiers,  and  to  create  a  cosmo- 
politanism among  the  recluses  which  was  amazing.  A  feeling 
of  brotherhood  and  kinship  pervaded  them  all,  whatever  their 
complexion,  their  speech,  or  their  blood.  Especially  cosmo- 
politan were  the  Irish  Columban  clergy ;  some  in  search  of 
solitude,  others  in  search  of  learning,  seem  to  have  found  their 
way  into  every  corner  of  Central  Europe — as  far  as  Iceland 
and  perhaps  Norway  in  the  North,  and  as  far  as  the  recesses  of 
the  Apennines  in  Italy  and  of  the  Alpine  country,  while  France 
was  dotted  with  their  settlements. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  to  these  primitive  monks  and 
hermits  the  Mecca  and  focus  of  their  craft  and  profession  was 
Egypt,  in  the  sandy  wastes  of  which  there  were  vast  numbers 
of  them  in  large  communities,  who  there  developed  not  only 
their  special  forms  of  asceticism,  but  also  their  forms  of  learning, 


APPENDIX  IV  315 

and  who  bestrewed  the  land  with  great  monasteries  and  many 
churches  of  a  most  interesting  type  both  in  design  and  ornament. 

Again,  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  was  in  the  seventh 
century  the  Mohammedan  Arabs  overwhelmed  the  countries 
we  are  referring  to  and  largely  destroyed  their  religious  life, 
and  scattered  their  monks  and  clergy  in  various  directions. 
The  result  was  the  flooding  of  the  Italian  peninsula  and  Sicily 
with  Greek  monks  and  priests ;  Greek  monasteries  sprang  up 
there,  even  in  Rome,  and  Greek  ecclesiastics  made  their  way  to 
the  higher  offices  in  the  Church,  being  doubtless  patronised  and 
supported  by  the  great  Emperor  and  his  officials.  It  is  a  most 
noteworthy  fact  that  at  this  time  quite  a  number  of  Greeks  in 
succession  became  Popes,  and  so  far  as  we  can  discover  mtro- 
duced  a  good  many  changes  into  the  cults  and  ritual  of  the 
Latin  Church. 

It  was  not  only  Italy  where  this  took  place,  but  in  far-off 
Britain,  where  Rome  had  its  own  specially  cherished  mission. 
We  had  a  Greek  in  the  Metropolitan  see  at  Canterbury,  and 
another  Greek  at  the  head  of  the  senior  English  monastery,  that 
of  St.  Augustine's  at  Canterbury,  and  we  further  know  that  here 
and  in  Ireland  there  was  a  special  fervour  for  studying  Greek  at 
this  time  unmatched  elsewhere  in  Europe,  and  virtually  unknown 
in*.  Gaul.  There  was  also  a  constant  moving  to  and  fro  of 
students  and  scholars  in  search  of  fresh  methods  of  learning  and 
teaching.  Nuns  rivalled  monks  in  their  pursuit  of  knowledge 
and  their  aptitude  at  composing  classical  verses. 

Meanwhile  the  fashion  for  travel  was  stimulated  by  the 
desire  of  visiting  Rome,  the  Western  capital  of  Christendom, 
and  Jerusalem,  the  birthplace  of  the  Faith.  All  this  was  very 
especially  the  case  in  these  realms,  and  notably  in  Ireland.  We 
cannot  doubt  that  among  these  pilgrims  and  travellers  there 
must  have  been  some  who  brought  back  visions  of  the  fine 
churches  and  fine  services  they  had  noticed,  and  brought  back, 
too,  patterns  and  samples  of  the  artistic  work  they  had  seen. 

It  is  not  so  wonderful,  therefore,  that  at  this  time  the 
renascent  style  of  ornament  which  had  grown  up  in  the  rich 
and  prosperous  lands  of  the  Seleucidae  and  the  Ptolemies, 
and  been  especially  cultivated  by  the  provincial  inhabitants 
of  those  Roman  provinces,  should  have  found  their  way  to 
Britain.  It  is  noteworthy  that  it  came  not  to  the  South  of 
England,  where  such  remains  are  virtually  not  found,  but  to  the 
North,  where  the  ecclesiastical  movement  was  so  full  of  life,  and 


3  1 6  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

where  it  was  especially  cherished  by  the  clergy  of  the  Irish 
mission,  who  founded  the  famous  school  of  Neo-Celtic  art  at 
Lindisfarne. 

It  is  noteworthy,  too,  that  some  of  the  very  finest  and  earliest 
of  the  crosses  we  are  discussing  have  been  found  not  in 
the  eastern  parts  of  the  Northumbrian  land  but  in  the  lands 
bordering  the  Solway  Firth,  where  we  have  evidence  that  there 
was  a  port  at  which  there  was  much  commerce  not  only  with 
Ireland  but  with  the  Continent,  namely,  Ravenglas.  All  this 
converges  on  the  probability  that  the  crosses  we  are  discussing 
had  their  inspiration  in  the  Coptic  art  of  Egypt  or  the  Neo- 
Roman  art  of  Syria  and  the  prosperous  lands  of  Asia  Minor. 

The  view  here  expressed,  that  the  art  of  the  earliest  Anglian 
crosses  came  from  Egypt  and  Syria,  was  reached  independently 
by  myself,  and  it  was  only  after  the  previous  remarks  were 
written  that  I  was  greatly  pleased  to  find  that  I  had  the  support 
of  greater  authorities  than  myself,  and  notably  my  distinguished 
friends,  Dalton  and  Lethaby.  Dalton  unhesitatingly  attributes 
the  crosses  to  the  seventh  century.  In  regard  to  the  sculptures 
on  them,  he  says  on  page  103  of  his  Byzantine  Art  and 
Archceology:  "Reasons  are  advanced  elsewhere  (p.  236)  for  the 
belief  that  this  really  remarkable  sculpture,  which  decayed  almost 
as  suddenly  as  it  arose,  must  have  been  inspired  from  foreign 
(East  Christian)  sources." 

Turning  to  the  reference  here  made  on  page  236,  Mr.  Dalton, 
speaking  of  the  sculpture  on  the  Bewcastle  and  Ruthwell  crosses, 
says  :  "  It  appears  very  suddenly  and  decays  with  great  rapidity  ; 
its  rise  and  fall  are  those  of  an  exotic  art  which  flourishes  during 
the  persistence  of  exceptional  conditions  but  is  unable  to 
maintain  itself  when  they  are  withdrawn.  The  half-figure  of 
Christ  at  Rothbury,  not  a  hundred  years  later  than  the  Bewcastle 
cross,  shows  all  the  symptoms  of  decadence,  the  staring  eyes, 
the  elongated  lips,  the  drapery  channelled  rather  than  modelled, 
are  all  evidence  of  a  growing  incapacity.  .  .  .  With  the  crosses  of 
Aycliffe  and  Ilkley,  and  the  fragment  from  Gainford,  the  decay 
is  complete :  the  human  figures  have  almost  shrunk  to  con- 
ventional hieroglyphs  without  pretence  to  natural  truth.  It  can 
hardly  be  doubted,  therefore,  that  this  meteoric  appearance  of 
a  monumental  sculpture  in  Northumbria  must  be  ascribed  to 
external  influence.  To  the  question  from  what  quarter  this 
influence  proceeded  there  is  only  one  probable  answer  :  it  must 
in  the  first  instance  have  come  from  the  east  of  the  Mediter- 


APPENDIX  IV  317 

ranean.  Neither  in  Ireland,  nor  in  the  Prankish  dominions,  nor 
in  Italy  do  we  know  any  sculpture  at  all  comparable  with  this,  or 
any  art  in  which  the  human  figure  is  treated  with  greater  ability."  ^ 

Let  me  now  turn  to  Professor  Lethaby,  who  has  written  so 
ably  on  these  crosses.  He  points  out  that  a  sculpture  which 
has  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  figures  on  our  crosses  is 
illustrated  by  Mr.  Dalton  in  his  Figure  85.  This  is  Coptic. 
Speaking  of  the  braided  patterns  on  the  Bewcastle  cross,  he 
derives  them  from  Coptic  sources,  and  he  quotes  Dalton  as 
attributing  "the  diagonal  key  pattern  "  or  "  skew  fret  "  on  these 
same  crosses  to  Eastern  sources,  while  he  himself  derives  it 
from  Coptic  textiles  or  manuscripts  such  as  the  Book  of 
Durrow  and  in  the  Lindisfarne  gospels,  "Unless,"  he  adds,  "as 
I  believe  is  probable,  Eastern  artists  themselves  brought  their 
traditions."  He  similarly  attributes  the  foliage  pattern  on  the 
Bewcastle  cross  where  the  scrolls  interlace  to  Coptic  prototypes, ^ 
and  he  concludes  :  "  I  am  entirely  satisfied  that  the  Ruthwell 
cross  is  a  seventh-century  monument,  and  I  believe  that  its  art 
types  were  derived  from  Coptic  sources."  ^ 

Another  piece  of  notable  evidence  in  this  behalf  is  to  be 
found  in  the  very  singular  fact  that  among  the  unusual  in- 
cidents figured  on  the  Ruthwell  cross  one  represents  the  meeting 
of  the  two  anchorites  Paul  and  Anthony  in  the  Egyptian 
desert.* 

Another  proof  of  the  early  date  of  these  crosses  is  deducible 
from  the  forms  of  the  letters  in  which  the  inscriptions  which 
are  not  written  in  runes  are  set  out.  On  this  Mr.  Lethaby  has 
some  very  useful  remarks.  He  says  the  pure  alphabet  in  which 
the  Latin  inscriptions  are  written  is  in  an  Irish  form  of  script. 
They  resemble  those  on  the  early  grave  slabs  found  at  Hartle- 
pool, and  are  of  an  entirely  different  character  to  the  inscribed 
dedication-stone  of  the  church  at  Jarrow,  a  work  of  the  Roman 
school.  The  Ruthwell  inscription  is  certainly  in  the  Celtic  tradi- 
tion.^    On  the  same  subject,  Mr.  Lethaby  writes  elsewhere : — 

"  At  my  suggestion,  Miss  D.  Moxon,  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Art,  made  some  time  ago  a  close  study  of  the  alphabet  of 
the  Latin  inscription,  and  this  she  allows  me  to  reproduce.  .  .  . 

^  Byzantine  Art  and  Archceology,  p.  236. 

2  See  Dalton,  Figure  27  and  Figures  22,  23,  24,  and  25  for  single  scrolls. 

'  Burlington  Alagazine,  vol.  xxi.  p.  146. 

*  See  Lethaby,  Arch.  Journal,  Ixx.  145  and  146. 

^  lb.  147. 


3  1 8  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  result  gives  us  a  semi-Irish 
hand  such  as  was  in  use  in  Northumbria  about  the  year  700. 
The  X,  for  instance,  is  like  the  famous  great  X  of  the  Book  of 
Kells.  ...  I  would  point  out  one  rather  remarkable  coincidence 
regarding  the  contractions  I  H  S  .  X  P  S.  On  the  Ruthwell 
cross  the  Greek  H  is  improperly  represented  by  the 
letter  h.  Now  on  the  Gospels  from  Bobbio  in  the  National 
Library  at  Turin  the  letters  are  rendered  in  exactly  the 
same  way,  I  h  S."  ^  Again  he  says :  "  A  curious  form  of  & 
occurs  on  the  Ruthwell  cross,  and  a  somewhat  similar  symbol 
for  it  is  common  in  Saxon  and  Irish  MSB.,  including 
the  Book  of  Kells."  ^  In  a  later  paper  Mr.  Lethaby  adds  : 
"I  should  now  like  to  make  the  correction  that  the  sign 
for  &  is  much  more  like  that  found  in  Irish  MSS.  than 
was  shown.  ...  A  similar  symbol  is  found  on  the 
Welsh  cross  at  Caldey  Island,  and  on  a  Cornish  cross  at 
Lauherne."  ^ 

Turning  from  the  inscriptions  in  Romano-Irish  letters  to 
those  written  in  runes,  about  which  there  has  also  been  some 
mystification,  the  evidence  seems  to  me  to  entirely  confirm  the 
other  facts  here  adduced.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  a  strong 
argument  in  favour  of  the  early  date  for  the  Ruthwell  cross  that 
so  long  an  inscription  should  have  been  written  at  all  in  runes 
and  not  in  Roman  letters,  which  superseded  them  at  an  early 
date  even  on  the  crosses.  The  runes  used  in  this  country  were 
of  two  series,  an  early  series  known  as  English  runes  and  a  later 
one  which  was  especially  developed  in  Scandinavia  and  was 
used  in  England  by  the  Danes  and  Norwegians  of  a  later  date. 
They  differ  from  each  other  in  details  rather  than  substantially. 
It  has  been  argued  that  in  the  case  of  these  crosses  some  of  the 
runes  point  to  a  later  date  for  the  inscriptions  than  the  seventh 
century. 

That  the  runes  on  the  crosses  are  English  runes  and 
do  not  belong  to  the  Scandinavian  series  is  beyond  doubt. 
Long  ago  Dr.  Duncan  in  his  memoir  on  the  Ruthwell  cross  in 
the  JVew  Statistical  Accoufit  of  Scotland,  written  in  1845,  said  : 
"The  runes  are  not  Danish,  but  Anglo-Saxon,  a  discovery  which 
seems  to  have  been  made  by  Grimm,  which  establishes  that  the 
date  must  be  sought  for  during  the  Heptarchy.  .  .  .  Repp  has 

*  Burlington  Magazine,  vol.  xxi.  p.  145. 

^  lb,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  48. 

^  Arch.  Journal^  vol.  Ixx.  p.  147,  note. 


APPENDIX   IV  319 

discovered  that  the  runic  alphabet  is  widely  different  from  that 
employed  by  the  Danes." 

The  only  reasonable  objections  which  have  been  made  to 
the  conclusions  here  urged  were  raised  by  Dr.  Baldwin  Brown, 
who  otherwise  agrees  with  the  view  that  the  crosses  are  of  the 
earliest  type.  He  says,  speaking  of  the  cross  head  at  Ruthwell, 
that  he  has  not  been  able  to  find  any  cross  heads  so  like  the 
Ruthwell  example  of  earlier  date  than  examples  from  Rothbury, 
Northumberland,  and  others  built  into  the  Norman  walling  of 
the  chapter-house  at  Durham,  and  dated  by  their  position 
between  the  years  1000  and  1083.  In  regard  to  this,  Professor 
Lethaby  says  conclusively  :  "The  cross  head  has  been  falsified 
in  restoration ;  the  second  curve  in  the  lower  arm  had  no 
existence  before  the  cross  was  broken."  ^ 

Dr.  Brown  also  urges  that  two  of  the  runes  in  the  inscription 
are  of  a  later  date.  In  regard  to  this  we  must  remember  that 
the  Ruthwell  cross  inscription  is  by  far  the  longest  one  we  know 
written  in  English  runes.  If  we  exclude  it  we  have  very  few 
inscriptions,  and  these  short  and  unimportant,  belonging  to  the 
earlier  time  extant.  It  would  under  these  circumstances  be  very 
rash  to  base  a  wide  induction  which  would  be  at  issue  with 
all  the  other  evidence  we  possess  on  negative  testimony.  As  Mr. 
Lethaby  says:  "The  inscriptions  are  so  few  that  a  complete 
alphabet  cannot  be  made  up  from  them.  Now  it  happens  that 
the  need  for  the  particular  runic  letters  which  are  objected  to 
does  not,  I  believe,  occur  at  all  in  the  short  series,  so  that  it  is 
impossible  to  say  they  would  not  have  been  used."^ 

To  this  I  would  add  that  the  two  characters  in  question, 
answering  to  G  and  K,  are  'J>^  and  xrv  ,  and  neither  of  them 
occurs  among  the  Scandinavian  runes.  Stephens  in  his  vast 
corpus  of  runic  inscriptions  has  analysed  the  usage  of  the 
runic  characters  very  minutely,  and  tells  us  that  among  the 
old  Northern  runes,  by  which  he  means  those  older  than  the 
Viking  times,  there  are  only  two  forms  of  the  rune  for  K,  one 
^r^  on  the  Ruthwell  cross,  and  p|^  on  the  Bewcastle  cross, 
showing  that  the  former  is  a  mere  variant.  This  is  still  more 
clear  from  the  fact  that  on  the  Ruthwell  cross  itself  h.  also  occurs 
as  a  variant  of  the  same  letter. 

In   regard   to   the   other   rune   which   stands  for  G,  I  can 
only  find  it  twice  among  the  hundred  inscriptions  described  by 
^  Arch.  Journal^  vol.  Ixx.  p.  155.  ^  lb.  p.  156. 


320  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Stephens.  On  the  table  in  vol.  i.  of  his  great  work,  p.  125,  may 
be  seen,  however,  quite  a  number  of  variants  of  this  letter  closely 
allied  to  it  in  form,  showing  that  it  is  a  mere  accidental  variety. 
It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  any  argument  based  on  these  two 
accidental  runes  must  be  a  very  fragile  one,  and  hardly  weighs  in 
the  balance  at  all  compared  with  the  mass  of  evidence  on  the 
other  side. 

This  concludes  my  analysis  of  the  dates  of  the  great  crosses 
at  Bewcastle  and  Rushworth  and  Abercorn;  a  large  series  of  others 
may  be  approximately  dated  by  them,  and  I  claim  to  have  shown 
that  the  criticisms  of  foreign  critics  on  the  dates  and  artistic  ties 
of  these  domestic  monuments  of  ours  are  based  on  very  imperfect 
knowledge,  and  do  not  in  any  way  affect  the  otherwise  conclusive 
date  assigned  to  them  by  a  whole  catena  of  expert  English 
antiquaries. 


APPENDIX   V 

THE   CODEX  AMIATINUS  OF   THE    BIBLE: 
ITS   HISTORY   AND    IMPORTANCE 

Bede's  tract  on  the  history  of  the  abbots  of  Jarrow  and 
Wearmouth  is  largely  based  on  an  earlier  work  on  the  life  of 
Abbot  Ceolfrid  by  a  monk  of  one  of  those  two  monasteries  whose 
name  is  not  recorded.  Bede  both  epitomises  and  enlarges  this 
earlier  narrative,  and  tells  us  inter  alia  that  Ceolfrid  ruled  for 
seven  years  at  Jarrow  and  twenty-eight  years  over  the  combined 
monasteries,  hiter  alia  the  anonymous  author  in  speaking  of 
the  abbot  says  : 

''^  Bibliothecam  quain  de  Roma  vel  ipse,  vel  Benedictus  adfulerat, 
nobiliter  ampliavit,  ita  ut  inter  alia  tres  Pandedes  {i.e.  whole 
^\h\&%)  faceret  describi,  quorum  duo  per  totitem  sua  monaster ia  {i.e. 
Jarrow  and  Wearmouth) /^i-^///  in  aecclesiis,  ut  cunctis  qui  aliquod 
capitulum  de  utrolihet  testamefito  legere  voluisse?it,  in  promptu 
esset  invenire  quod  cuperent ;  tertiuin  autem  Rofna7n  profecturus 
do?2um  beato  Petro  Apostolorum  priitcipi  offer  re  decrevit.^''^ 

In  his  paraphrase  of  the  work  of  the  anonymous  author,  just 
quoted,  Bede,  referring  to  these  codices,  writes  :  "  Bibliothecam 
utriusque  mo?iasterii  quam  Benedictus  Abbas  magna  caepit 
instantia^  ipse  non  viinori  gemi?iavit  industria ;  ita  ut  tres 
pandedes  novae  irafislationis^  ad  icnum  vetustae  translationis  quetn 
de  Rofna  adtulerat  ipse  super  adjungeret ;  quorum  unu??i  senex 
Romam  rediens  secum  inter  alia  pro  munere  siimpsit,  duos  utrique 
jnonasterio  reliqiiit.^^  ^ 

This  statement  seems  very  plain,  and  yet  it  is  full  of 
ambiguity. 

About  716  Ceolfrid  resigned  his  abbacy,  being  then  an  old 
man  of  seventy-four,  and  determined  to  go  on  a  pilgrimage 
{apostolorum  limina  peregrinatiirus  adiret).^  He  took  with  him 
a  letter  of  commendation  to  the  Pope  from  his  successor  Abbot 
Hwaetberht,  with    certain  gifts.      Before  he    reached  Rome  he 

^  Plummer's  Bede,  i.  395.  2  piummer,  i.  379.  3  /^^  \^  ^^^^ 

VOL.  III. — 21 


32  2   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

fell  ill,  and  died  on  25th  September  716.  This  was  at  Langres 
(Lingones),  where  he  was  buried.^  Of  his  companions  some 
returned  home  and  some  went  on  to  Rome  taking  with  them 
the  gifts  he  had  sent  {delatura  niunera  quae  miserat).^  Among 
them  was  the  Paiidectes  inter pretatione  beati  Hieronymi presbiteri 
ex  Hebraeo  et  Greco  fonte  transfusus  just  cited.  This  pandect, 
as  is  well  known,  has  survived  the  dangers  of  more  than  twelve 
hundred  years,  and  is  extant  in  a  very  perfect  condition.  It 
has  been  identified  by  an  extremely  interesting  and  ingenious 
inductive  process  with  the  most  famous  of  all  Latin  Biblical 
MSS. — namely,  the  Codex  Amiatinus.  A  short  account  of  it 
will  make  my  further  argument  clearer.  It  is  now  preserved 
in  the  Mediceo-Ambrosian  Library  at  Florence,  where  many 
theological  pilgrims  have  been  to  see  and  collate  it.  On  the  title- 
page  of  the  Codex  are  some  verses  stating  that  it  had  been 
presented  to  the  Monastery  of  Monte  Amiata  by  a  certain 
Petrus  Lombardorum  Abbas,  who  lived  at  the  end  of  the  ninth 
or  beginning  of  the  tenth  century. 

The  second  hexameter  runs  thus  : 

"Petrus  Longobardorum  extremis  de finibus  abbas." 

The  famous  Italian  scholar  De  Rossi  showed  in  1886  that 
the  name  and  style  of  the  Lombard  abbot  in  the  dedicatory 
verses  were  written  over  erasures,  and  that  the  name  "  Petrus  " 
had  been  altered  from  "  Ceol/rid,''^  the  word  "abbas"  doing 
duty  for  both  names,  while  the  words  "corpus  Petri'''  in 
the  first  line  had  been  changed  to  "  Coenobiu7n  St.  Sahatoris." 
This  was  a  clear  proof  that  the  original  dedication  had 
been  made  by  Abbot  Ceolfrid.  He  further  suggested  that 
the  word  "  Longobardorum '^  had  been  substituted  for  that  of 
"  Briton."  Bishop  Forest  Browne  pointed  out  the  objections  to 
this  last  suggestion,  namely,  that  the  line  as  corrected  did  not 
scan,  and,  secondly,  that  it  was  virtually  impossible  for  a 
Northumbrian  in  the  eighth  century  to  speak  of  himself  as  a 
Briton.  In  his  opinion  the  second  word  should  be  "  Anglorum"  a 
view  afterwards  shown  to  be  correct. — Londo?i  Guardian,  March  2, 

1887. 

Soon  after.  Dr.  Hort,  writing  in  the  Academy  of  26th  February 
1887,  was  further  able  to  show  that  in  the  anonymous  Life  of 
Ceolfrid  already  cited,  the  publication  of  which  by  Stevenson  in 
1 84 1    had    apparently    been    overlooked    abroad,    there    occur 

^  Plummer,  i.  385  and  402. 

2  Anon.  Life  of  Ceolfrid^  ib,  400  and  402. 


C>ce>  I  ex  r  \lx\  j .  i^cs 

OcciOTi  \| :i:cc?rgs 

picsoRX  OUT  TO  cnci 
"  cT>cxjue  cntpsq  bpTVNS 

TVNTl  lNteRq>fJ(>l\  p\ IR IS. 

I\c.\cl.is  onc<r>oRi^^ 

<;cxi^pcR  bxRciKiLocuci^ 


Dedication  of  the  Codex  jM/.ir/xis  as  ii' 

NOW    READS. 


[  I  'ol  in. ,  facinsp.  322. 


APPENDIX  V  323 

certain  verses  in  which  Ceolfrid's  name  was  enshrined.  These, 
Dr.  Hort  showed,  were  the  very  verses  in  which  Ceolfrid 
dedicated  the  pandect  he  took  to  Rome  as  a  present  to  the 
Pope,  and  which  also  occur  in  the  Codex  Amiaiinus.  The  verses 
as  reported  in  the  anonymous  Life  are : 

**  Corpus  ad  eximii  merito  venerabile  Petri 
Dedicat  aecdesiae  quern  caput  alia  fides 
Ceolfridus  Anglorum  extremis  de  finibus  abbas 
Devoti  affectus  pignora  mitto  met. 
Meque  meosque  optans  tanti  inter  gaudia  patris 
In  caelis  memorem  semper  habere  locumy 

Inasmuch  as  the  circumstances,  the  date  of  the  script,  etc., 
concurred  to  support  this  view,  it  was  at  once  and  everywhere 
accepted.  The  whole  story  is  told  with  admirable  lucidity  in 
Mr.  H.  J.  White's  Memoir  on  the  MS.  in  the  second  volume  of 
Studia  Biblia.  This  discovery  at  once  greatly  enhanced  the 
value  of  the  A7tiiatinus  Codex,  which  was  thus  proved  to  be 
certainly  not  later  than  the  year  716.  This  was  not  the  end  of 
the  matter,  however,  as  a  more  careful  and  critical  examination 
of  the  MS.  showed  that  it  was  not  homogeneous,  but  that  the 
first  quaternion  is  markedly  different  from  the  rest,  and  the  parch- 
ment on  which  it  is  written  is  not  quite  so  tall  as  that  of  the 
other  gatherings,  and  is  darker  and  thicker.  Further,  this  gather- 
ing is  not  signed,  and  the  second  quaternion,  beginning  the  Bible 
text  itself,  is  marked  i.  Lastly,  the  writing  of  the  lists  and 
prefatory  matter  in  the  first  quaternion  is  in  a  different  hand 
from  that  of  the  body  of  the  book,  all  going  to  show  that  that 
section  and  the  rest  of  the  volume  came  from  two  different  sources. 

Mr.  White  has  given  a  syllabus  of  the  contents  of  this 
quaternion  which  is  instructive.  He  tells  us  fol.  i  is  blank ; 
lb  has  the  dedicatory  verses  already  cited ;  2  is  blank ;  2b 
and  3  contain  a  large  bird's-eye  view  of  the  Tabernacle ;  3<^  is 
blank  ;  4  contains  a  prologue  to  the  contents  of  the  MS. ;  4^ 
contains  a  list  of  the  books  in  the  Amiatine  MS.  arranged  to 
suit  two  volumes,  with  certain  hexameter  lines  below  ;  fol.  5 
has  a  picture  of  Ezra  seated  at  his  desk  with  a  bookcase  close 
by  ;  ^b  is  blank ;  6  contains  a  list  of  the  Bible  books  according 
to  Jerome,  with  a  sacred  lamb,  etc.,  above ;  7  has  another  and 
different  list  of  the  sacred  books  underneath  the  head  of  a 
monk  ;  ']b  is  stained  yellow,  and  has  a  number  of  circles  drawn 
on  it ;  8  contains  the  Bible  books  according  to  St.  Augustine, 
and  also  a  picture  of  a  dove  with  spread  wings  surrounded  by 


324  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

flames,  with  two  fillets  from  which  hang  the  six  divisions  of  the 
sacred  books  ;  8^  is  blank.  Bishop  Browne  treats  this  folio  as  an 
outside.  He  also  observes  that  fol.  6  must  at  one  time  have 
been  next  to  fol.  8,  since  part  of  the  couplet  at  the  top  of  the 
latter  can  be  read  on  the  face  of  fol.  6b^  a  considerable  part  of 
the  couplet  having  been  impressed  in  reverse  upon  it.  This  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  this  entry,  unlike  any  other  in  the  MS.,  is 
formed  by  a  profusion  of  thick  black  pigment,  which  has  been 
silvered,  and  has  the  air  of  an  insertion.  If  the  quaternion  were 
arranged  properly,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  "  temple  " 
must  have  been  the  innermost  sheet.  The  donation  with  the 
Augustinian  division  of  Scripture  has  naturally  been  the  inner- 
most. The  Ezra  portion  with  the  Hieronymian  division  would 
then  be  2  and  7  ;  the  prologue  and  the  contents  of  the  codex, 
the  Hilarion  division,  and  the  contents  of  the  Pentateuch,  which 
are  now  separate  pages,  would  be  3  and  6. — London  Guardian^ 
April  29,  1887,  p.  651. 

Professor  Corssen  and  Mr.  White  have  both  written  about  the 
contents  of  this  quaternion  and  have  greatly  illustrated  it,  but  the 
last  word  has  still  to  be  said.  I  would  urge  in  regard  to  the  first 
leaf  with  its  dedicatory  verses  that  it  has  nothing  to  do  with 
any  other  part  of  the  MS.,  but  was  entirely  supplied  by  Ceolfrid 
himself,  who  wrote  the  verses.  The  4th  folio,  again,  which  is 
stained  on  both  sides  with  a  fine  purple  while  the  writing  is  on 
a  yellow  ground  (doubtless  to  simulate  gold)  is  arranged  in  tables 
within  a  double  arch  of  twisted-rope  pattern,  and  contains 
the  prologue  and  the  list  of  books  in  the  succeeding  codex. 
This  was  once,  no  doubt,  as  Professor  Corssen  suggests,  an 
integral  part  of  the  Amiatinus  volume,  forming  probably  its 
initial  pages.  There  are  some  slight  discrepancies  between  the 
prologue  and  the  contents  of  the  book,  which  is  also  the  case 
with  the  temple  of  contents.  On  this  Bishop  Browne  says  :  "  It 
will  be  found  on  counting  the  books  recited  that  they  are  thirty- 
six.  Adding  one  each  for  2  Samuel,  2  Kings,  2  Chronicles,  and 
2  Esdras,  we  obtain  seventy,  the  number  of  the  prologue.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  codex  actually  contains  seventy-one, 
Jeremiah  and  Lamentations  being  represented  in  the  contents  as 
'  Hosemias.'     Thus  the  discrepancies  may  not  be  real." 

The  rest  of  the  folios  in  the  first  quaternion — namely, 
2j  3,  5^  6,  7,  and  8 — had  nothing  whatever  to  do  originally 
with  the  succeeding  codex  and  have  been  transplanted  from 
another  MS.     They  were  probably  added  to  this  one  by  Ceolfrid 


J Sr-         '-^ ^ 


Plan  of  thk  Jewish  Tabernacle  from  the 
Codex  Amiatixus. 


[Vol.  I  If.,  facing  p.  324. 


APPENDIX  V  325 

to  give  his  present  to  the  Pope  a  grander  and  more  sumptuous  ap- 
pearance. The  Codex  is  quite  complete  without  these  additions. 
It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  the  first  quaternion  of  the  Codex 
A?mati?ius,  with  the  exception  of  fol.  4,  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  MS.  as  originally  written,  that  fol.  i  was  the  composition  of 
Ceolfrid  himself,  and  that  the  other  foHos  formed  a  transported 
boulder  from  some  other  MS. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  boulder  in  question,  i.e.  folios  2,  3, 
5,  6,  7,  and  8  of  quaternion  i.  Whence  did  it  come?  It  had 
already  been  noticed  by  Dr.  Corssen  in  1883  that  one  of  the 
pictures  in  the  2nd  and  3rd  folios  of  the  Codex  A??n'ati?ius — 
namely,  that  of  the  Tabernacle — was  also  mentioned  by  Cassio- 
dorus  as  contained  in  a  codex  in  his  library  which  was  called 
by  him  the  "  Codex  Grandiory  Cassiodorus  thus  speaks  of  it : 
"  taherjiaculum  tejnpluvique  Dommt  .  .  .  quae  depicta  subtiliter 
lineame7ttis  propriis  i?i  Pandecte  Latino  corporis  grandiorisy^ 
Bishop  Browne  says  that  in  his  comments  on  Psalm  xiv.  i 
Cassiodorus  writes  :  "  Quas  nos  fecimus  frugi,  et  i?i  pandectes 
collocari." — London  Guardian,  April  1887,  p.  652. 

Cassiodorus  elsewhere  describes  the  contents  of  this  Pandectes 
Gra?tdior,  and  tells  us  that  the  Latin  text  in  it  was  the  Old 
Latin  version.  Now,  as  we  have  seen,  Bede  tells  us  that  Ceolfrid, 
or  Benedict  Biscop,  brought  a  pandect  to  Northumbria  con- 
taining the  Old  Latin  version.  Dr.  Hort  very  ingeniously 
carried  this  induction  further  by  quoting  two  passages  from 
Bede's  minor  works.  One  of  these  comes  from  his  tract  on  the 
Tabernacle,  ii.  12,  and  reads  as  follows:  "  Quo  modo  i?t  pictura 
Cassiodori  senatoris  cujus  ipse  in  expositione  Psahnorum  me?ninit 
expressum  vidimus  " ;  and  again,  in  his  tract  on  Solomon's  Temple, 
ch.  xvi.,  he  says:  ^^ Has  vero  porticus  Cassiodorus  senator  in 
pandeciis  ut  ipse  Psalmorum  ex  positione  com?nemorat  triplici 
or  dine  distincta  " ;  adding  below  :  "  LLaec  ut  in  pictura  Cassiodori 
reperimus  distincta.^'' 

As  Dr.  Hort  says  :  "This  is  the  language  of  a  man  who  had 
actually  seen  with  his  own  eyes  the  representation  of  the 
Tabernacle  and  the  Temple  which  Cassiodorus  had  inserted  in 
his  pandect."  2  This  is  not  all.  In  the  preface  to  his  Memoir  de 
I?tstitutione  Divinarufn  Litterariwi,  Cassiodorus  tells  us  how  he 
had  withdrawn  from  the  world  and  devoted  himself  to  study, 
and  adds:  ^^ L?idul)itanter  ascendaffius  ad  divinam  Scripturam 
per  expositiones  probabiles  Patrum.  .  .  .  Lsta  est  enim  fortasse 
^  Inst.,  ch.  V.  2  yi^^  White,  op.  cit.  300. 


3  26  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

scala  Jacob  per  quam  angeli  ascendimt  et  descendunt.  .  .  .  Quo 
circa  si  placet  hunc  debemus  lectionis  ordi?iem  custodire  ut  priinum 
tirones  Christi  postquam  psahtios  didicerent  aiictoritatem  divinam 
in  codicibus  emendatis  jugi  exercitatio?ie  meditentur  donee  illis  fiat 
Domino  praestante  7iotissima :  ?ie  vitia  librariorum  i77ipolitis 
mentibus  inolescani,  quia  difficile  potest  erui  quod  memoriae 
sinibus  radicatum  constant  infigiP 

The  work  in  which  these  commentaries  of  the  Fathers  were 
abstracted  or  copied  he  describes  in  the  first  nine  chapters  of  the 
de  Institutione^  each  chapter  being  devoted  to  describing  a 
single  codex.  The  whole  work  consisted  of  nine  codices  or 
volumes.  These  codices  were  respectively  headed :  Caput  I. 
Primus  Scripturarum  divinaru?n  codex  est  Octateuchus ;  C.  IL 
In  Secundo  Eegufu  codice;  C.  III.  Ex  omni  igitur  Prophetarum 
codice  tertio',  C.  IV.  Sequitur  Psalterium  codex  quartus ;  C.  V. 
Quintus  codex  est  Salo??ionis ;  C.  VI.  Sequitur  Hagiographorum 
codex  sextus\  C  VI L  Septi??ius  igitur  codex  .  .  .  quatuor 
Evangelistarum  superna  luce  resplendet;  C.  VIII.  Octavus  codex 
Canonicas  Epis tolas  continet  Apostolorum ;  C.  IX.  Igitur  codex 
Actus  Apostolorum  ut  Apocalypsin  noscitur  contiiiere?- 

On  turning  to  the  first  quaternion  of  the  Codex  Amiatinus — 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  in  the  main  transferred  from  the 
Codex  Grandior  of  Cassiodorus — and  especially  to  the  picture 
there  contained  of  Ezra  in  his  cell,  we  shall  find  a  representation 
of  a  bookcase  containing  nine  large  volumes,  each  one  labelled. 
The  labels  in  question,  as  Corssen  was  the  first  to  point  out, 
correspond  with  one  exception  to  the  titles  here  referred  to. 
They  are  Oct.  lib.  Rest.  lib.  Psal.  lib.  Sal.  Prof.  Evangel  IIII. 
Epist.  op.  XXI.  Act.  Ap.  Apoca.  The  one  mistake  is  due, 
no  doubt,  to  the  artist,  who  instead  of  Hagi  has  written 
Rest. 

There  cannot  be  any  reasonable  doubt  that  the  picture  of 
the  bookcase  and  its  contents  was  either  directly  copied  from 
the  original  MS.  of  Cassiodorus  or  formed  part  of  that  MS. 

It  is  prima  facie  nearly  certain  that  the  latter  alternative  is 
the  right  one,  and  that  the  MS.  from  which  the  greater  part  of 
the  first  quaternion  of  the  Codex  Amiatinus  was  derived  was 
the  actual  original  Codex  Grandior  of  Cassiodorus ;  otherwise, 
Bede's  language  about  his  having  himself  seen  that  Codex  is 
unintelligible.  At  the  end  of  the  seventh  and  the  beginning  of 
the  eighth   century  the   so-called   Vulgate  text  of  Jerome  had 

*  White,  op.  ciL  29 1 . 


°  O  °  U    "^  □    ^  O  '^   Q  ;   O  ;  □    lol<^l    O  . 


EZKA    COMPOSING    HIS    EDITION    OF    THE    BiBLE    EKOM    THE 

ConEX  Amiatixus. 


[;W.  III.,  facing  p.  326. 


APPENDIX  V  327 

supplanted  its  predecessor,  generally  known  as  the  Vetus  Latina 
and  sometimes  as  the  Itala^  which  had  become  obsolete.^  It 
would  therefore  be  of  only  remote  interest  to  its  Italian 
custodians,  who  had  themselves  become  poor  judges  of  such 
matters,  for  Italy  was  then  terribly  troubled  by  the  Lombards 
and  other  invaders,  and  they  would  be  willing  to  part  with  it 
to  a  rich  Northern  traveller  anxiously  in  search  for  MSS.  for 
his  new  monastery.  The  fact  of  Jerome's  text  having  become 
so  widely  recognised  would,  we  cannot  doubt,  make  it  very 
unlikely  that  the  same  Northern  traveller  would  have  a  new 
copy  made  of  the  older  version  on  this  grand  scale.  Again,  both 
writing  and  designs  in  the  first  quaternion  are  so  Italian  in 
style  and  so  different  to  anything  English  written  at  this  time, 
that  it  seems  conclusive  if  it  was  a  copy,  and  not  an  original, 
that  it  was  copied  in  Italy.  I  think  some  of  Mr.  White's 
hesitation  in  the  matter  is  a  little  strained,  and  I  agree  with  the 
paragraph  in  which  he  argues  that  the  first  quaternion  was 
bodily  transferred  from  the  actual  Codex  Gra?idior  to  its  present 
place.  "The  Codex  Grandior  was  certainly,"  he  says,  "  in  North 
Britain,  for  Bede  saw  it  there."  It  may  well  have  been  the 
Pa?idectes  vetusfae  tra?islatio7iis  which  Benedict  Biscop  or 
Ceolfrid  brought  from  Rome,  and  it  would  be  quite  in  keeping 
with  the  times  that  Ceolfrid,  in  presenting  his  magnificent  new 
pandect  to  the  Holy  See,  should  have  tacked  to  it  the  quaternion, 
which  had  hitherto  stood  at  the  beginning  of  Cassiodorus'  Old 
Latin  pandect,  and  which  was  so  handsomely  decorated. 

All  this  paragraph  was  in  print  when  I  met  with  Bishop 
Browne's  letters  in  the  London  Guardian.  This  makes  our  con- 
currence at  this  point  most  interesting.  "  It  appears  to  be  sup- 
posed," he  says,  "  that  the  three  pandects  which  Ceolfrid  caused 
to  be  written  were  all  alike,  and  that  the  A?niatinus  is  one  of  the 
three  copies,  pictures  and  all.  An  examination  of  the  orna- 
mental part  leads  to  a  very  different  conclusion,  namely,  that  at 
least  the  Ezra  pictures  and  the  Solomon's  temple,  which  is  in 
fact  the  Tabernacle  in  full  detail,  are  not  copies  made  in 
England  but  the  original  pictures  of  Cassiodorus." 

The  question  still  remains  as  to  the  time  when  the  Codex 

^  It  seems  incredible  that  the  copy  of  the  Vetus  Latina  which  we  know 
Benedict  brought  to  Jarrow  would  be  a  new  codex.  That  translation  was 
then  obsolete  and  of  no  special  interest  to  anyone  except  an  advanced  scholar, 
and  would  be  a  very  costly  and  difficult  text  to  translate  for  merely  archaeo- 
logical purposes. 


328  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

came  to  England.  The  Life  of  Ceolfrid  says  that  it  was  he 
who  brought  it  here  from  Rome.  Now  the  only  visit  which  we 
know  Ceolfrid  paid  to  Italy  was  in  678,^  when  he  accompanied 
his  patron  and  friend,  Benedict  Biscop,  thither.  This  we  learn 
from  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History^  iv.  18,  where  he  says :  "  Cum 
enim  idem  Benedictus  construxisset  monasterium  Britanniae  in 
honorem  beatissimi  apostolorum  principis^  juxta  ostium  fiutninis 
Uiri  {i.e.  Jarrow),  venit  Romajn  cuf?i  cooperatore  ac  socio 
ejusdem  operis  Ceolfrido^  qui  post  ipsum  ejusdem  Monasterii  abbas 
fuit."^  On  this  visit  (as  on  other  visits  to  Italy)  Benedict 
Biscop,  as  Bede  tells  us,  brought  home  "  innumerabilem  librorum 
omnis  generis  copiam.^^ 

My  conclusion,  therefore,  is,  first,  that  Ceolfrid  brought 
back  to  England  the  very  MS.  called  Codex  Grandior  by 
Cassiodorus,  and  that  it  was  from  its  text  that  Bede  obtained 
so  many  of  the  passages  which  he  quotes  in  different  places  from 
*'  the  Old  Latin,"  and,  secondly,  that  it  was  this  very  MS.  which 
was  decapitated  by  Ceolfrid,  who  placed  its  earlier  pages  in  front 
of  the  Codex  he  had  had  prepared  for  the  Pope. 

Let  us  now  detach  the  intrusive  first  quaternions  from  the  Codex 
Amiatimis  and  turn  to  the  text  in  its  original  form.  According  to 
the  anonymous  Lives  of  the  Abbots  of  Monkwearmouth  and  of 
Bede,  this  Codex  was  one  of  three  copies  which  Ceolfrid  had  had 
made.  The  opinion  widely  current  is  that  these  copies  were  written 
in  Northumbria.  To  this  I  entirely  demur.  The  notion  that 
they  were  written  in  Northumbria  at  this  time  seems  to  me  quite 
incredible.  The  two  monasteries  over  which  Ceolfrid  presided 
were  very  young.  The  books  in  their  libraries,  the  ornaments 
for  the  churches,  everything  required  for  the  ritual  and  service 
of  the  Church  (so  far  as  we  know  from  the  Life  of  Benedict 
Biscop),  had  been  brought  from  Italy  or  Gaul,  and  the  possibility 
of  such  works  as  these  three  magnificent  codices  being  turned 
out  of  the  scriptoria  of  the  two  convents  at  this  time  seems  quite 
incredible.  Even  Dr.  Hort  and  Mr.  White,  who  hold  this  view, 
postulate  that  Ceolfrid  must  have  brought  an  Italian  scribe  with 
him ;  but  surely  three  enormous  pandects  like  these,  requiring 
parchments  of  very  large  size  and  quality,  could  never  have  been 
produced  in  Northumbria  at  this  time  by  the  hands  of  one 
scribe  or  of  two  scribes.  They  must  have  come  from  a  practised 
and  well-known  school  of  writers  and  scribes,  and  such  a  school 
could  only  at  this  time  have  been  found  in  South  Italy.  It  must 
^  Plummer,  Bede^  ii.  360.  ^  lb.  i.  241. 


Fkutke  of  St.  Matthew,  clearly  copied  from  the 
Similar  Figure  in  the  Codex  Amiatixus  on  the 
PREVIOUS  Page,  forming  the  Frontispiece  to  his 
Gospel  in   the  Lindisfarne  MS. 


[Vol.  in.,/acin£f<.  328. 


APPENDIX  V  329 

be  remembered  that  it  is  not  only  the  size  and  quaHty  of  the 
parchment  and  the  beauty  of  the  writing  in  this  MS.-  which 
are  so  attractive,  but  the  accuracy  and  excellence  of  the  text. 

My  readers  will  remember  the  plaintive  language  used  by 
Bede  about  the  very  indifferent  provision  for  manuscript  writing 
that  existed  in  the  monasteries  with  which  he  had  such  close 
ties,  and  how  he  had  himself  to  perform  most  of  the  drudgery  of 
copying. 

Again,  if  it  had  been  produced  in  Northumbria  we  should 
surely  have  found  some  traces  of  Northumbrian  art  in  it  such 
as  we  find  in  what  I  take  to  be  its  real  Northumbrian  daughter — 
namely,  the  Lindisfarne  Gospels,  a  work  of  much  more  moderate 
size,  but  teeming  with  that  local  colour  from  which  the  Codex 
Amiatmus  is  quite  free.  The  text,  again,  of  the  Lindisfarne 
Gospels  is  now  generally  accepted  as  having  been  derived  from 
the  Amiatine  MS.  On  this  point  Bishop  Browne  says:  "There 
are  some  remarkable  agreements  between  the  first  quaternions  of 
the  Amiatinus  and  the  Lindisfarne  Gospels.  The  Lindisfarne 
S.  Matthew  is  Ezra  pure  and  simple  in  curiously  exact  detail, 
stool  and  all,  but  the  stool  is  ornamented  with  little  circles  in 
place  of  the  classical  scroll  on  Ezra's  stool.  .  .  .  The  Canons  in 
the  two  MSS.  present  a  series  of  striking  coincidences  from  the 
point  of  view  of  ornament  and  arrangement.  As  regards  their 
text  Amiatinus  breaks  down  over  VIII.  and  Villi,  and  does 
not  find  it  out ;  Lindisfarne  also  misread  the  Villi,  and  wrote 
something  wrong  in  the  plan  of  X.,  but  found  it  out  and  altered 
it"  {Londo?i  Guardia?i,  April  27,  1887).  Now  the  Lindisfarne 
Gospels  were  written  for  St.  Cuthberht,  and  belonged  to  him. 
St.  Cuthberht  died  in  the  year  687,  so  that  they  must  have  been 
written  before  that  date  and  after  Ceolfrid's  return  from  Italy  in 
678.  Is  it  credible  that  these  two  MSS.  could  both  have  been 
written  in  the  same  small  scriptorium  during  these  nine  years, 
one  purely  Italian  in  script  and  decoration,  and  the  other  the 
finest  specimen  of  Celtic  art  known  ?     I  cannot  believe  it. 

Those  who  claim  a  Northumbrian  origin  for  the  Codex 
Amiatinus  tell  us,  as  I  have  said,  that  it  was  written  by 
Italian  scribes.  This  was  first  suggested  by  Dr.  Hort 
in  the  Acade?ny  of  26th  February  1887  ;  the  view  was 
supported  by  Sir  E.  Maunde  Thompson. ^  Mr.  White  says 
that  as  a  Roman  musician  was  brought  over  to  teach  the 
EngUsh  monks  to  sing,  so  an  Italian  scribe  may  well  have 
^  See  Paleography,  pp.  194  and  245. 


3  30  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

come  to  instruct  them  in  writing,  and  the  Amiatinus  Bible 
may  be  the  work  of  a  foreigner  though  written  in  England.^ 
This  solution,  even  if  it  were  consistent  with  the  difficulties 
to  be  met,  leaves  an  important  matter  unresolved.  If  the 
three  pandects  of  the  New  Version  were  copied  in  England 
some  time  between  687  and  716,  whence  was  the  text 
derived  from  which  they  were  copied?  I  have  not  seen  this 
question  put  by  any  one.  The  solution  of  Mr.  White  and 
others  that  the  three  copies  were  made  in  Northumbria  compels 
the  further  conclusion  that  the  mother  MS.  from  which  they 
were  taken  was  at  the  time  in  Northumbria.  If  so,  it  is  not 
easy  to  see  why  Ceolfrid  should  have  gone  to  the  great  expense 
of  having  three  fresh  copies  made  on  this  scale ;  for  his  needs 
were  completely  satisfied  when  he  had  secured  two  additional 
copies,  making  three  altogether — namely,  one  each  for  his  two 
monasteries  and  one  for  the  Pope.  Nor  have  we  any  trace 
of  or  reference  to  any  other  copy  but  these  three.  There  are 
other  reasons  which  seem  to  me  to  make  it  difficult  to  believe 
that  the  three  copies  were  made  in  Northumbria.  The  writing 
out  of  these  three  enormous  pandects  was  so  great  a  feat  that 
if  it  had  been  accompUshed  by  scribes  in  Northumbria  it  would 
in  all  probability  have  been  recorded  by  Bede  or  in  the 
anonymous  Life  of  Ceolfrid,  which  merely  say  that  Ceolfrid 
had  the  copies  made,  without  saying  where.  Again,  if  Ceolfrid 
could  command  scribes  in  Northumbria  capable  of  writing  out 
these  codices,  he  would  assuredly,  in  preparing  the  copy  for 
the  Pope,  have  also  prepared  a  suitable  heading  and  not 
decapitated  another  fine  MS.  in  order  to  procure  one.  It  is, 
lastly,  hard  to  imagine  whence  the  quite  unusually  large  sheets 
of  parchment  in  such  abundance  could  have  been  forthcoming 
in  Britain  at  this  time,  or  anywhere  else  north  of  the  Alps  at  this 
time.  I  have  therefore  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  three 
copies  were  not  only  made  by  Italians,  but  were  made  in  Italy. 

The  next  question  is,  in  which  part  of  Italy  were  the  copies 
made,  and  where  was  the  mother  MS.  whence  they  were  taken  ? 

Upon  this  problem  a  good  deal  of  light  has  recently  accumu- 
lated, going  to  show  that  not  only  was  the  mother  text  in 
question  a  South  Italian  MS.,  but  that  it  was  one  of  the 
texts  described  by  Cassiodorus  as  in  his  possession.  Dom 
Chapman  has  pointed  out  that  **  the  arrangement  of  the  text  of 
the  Codex  Amiatinus^  per  cola  et  conwiata,  after  the  example  of 

1  Op.  cit.  285. 


APPENDIX   V  331 

St.  Jerome  himself,  is  not  peculiar  to  this  text,  but  its  divisions 
seem    to    have    been    particularly    well    preserved    in    it.      Now 
Cassiodorus  had  been  careful  as  to  this  very  point,  as  he  tells 
us  in  his  preface  to  the  Institutio.     Again,  the  word  Pandectes 
as  applied    to   the    Codex  Amiatinus   both   by  the   anonymous 
author  of  the  Abbots'  Lives  and  by  Bede,  is  precisely  the  word 
used  by  Cassiodorus  for  a  complete  Bible.     Thirdly,  the  order 
of   the  groups  of  books  in  the   Codex  Amiatinus,  and  in  that 
alone  among  Vulgate   texts,  is    the    same   as   the  order  which 
was  followed  by  Cassiodorus  (a  fact  important  to  note  for  other 
reasons).     It   is  plain   that  the  ordering  of  groups  and   books 
within  the  groups  in  the   Codex  A?niati?ius  and  by  Cassiodorus 
is    a    peculiar   and    unique    one,    and    that   they   agree   in    the 
peculiarity."    As  Dom  Chapman  again  says  :  "  The  Amiatine  list 
is  a  list  of  the  books  in  St.  Jerome's  Version  arranged  in  the 
same  nine  groups  as  those  of  the  a?itiqua  translatio,  or  Codex 
Grandior,  and  of  the   nine  volumes  of  Cassiodorus ;    but  the 
interior  order  of  the  groups  is  that  of  St.  Jerome.     We  know 
that  in  Cassiodorus'  nine  volumes  this  was  the  case,  as  in  the 
volume   containing    Solomon's    works ;    while   in    that    of    the 
Epistles  he  certainly  put  those  of  St.  Paul  first  and  not  last, 
as    they   were  in    the  antiqua    tra7islatio.     But   the   number   of 
books  is  counted  as  seventy  with  that  list,  and  not  forty-nine  with 
St.  Jerome.     It  seems  to  be  plain  that  this  grouping  in   the  text 
can  only  be  due  to  one  cause — namely,  that  it  is  derived  from 
that  of  the  nine  volumes  of  Cassiodorus.     In  these  the  grouping 
was  obviously  due  to  the  necessity  of  fitting  the  commentaries 
into  volumes  of  more  or  less  equal  size.     It  would  not   have 
arisen   independently   in    a  codex  which   contained    the  Hiero- 
nymian  Vulgate  only,  without  the  commentaries.    The  size,  again, 
of  the  Codex  Amiatinus  is   the   same  as  that    which    is    other- 
wise known  as  the  Codex  Grandior  of  Cassiodorus."  ^     Without 
committing  myself  to  every  statement  in  this  account,  it  seems 
to  me  to   make   the  conclusion    incontestible  that   the   mother 
MS.   of  the    text  of  the    Codex  Amiatinus  was   in    the  library 
of  Cassiodorus  in  the  monastery  of  Scyllacium  in  the  extreme 
south  of  Italy.     As  we  have  already  seen,   Ceolfrid's  copy  of 
the  older  version  also  came  from  the  same  great  scriptorium, 
and  w^as  most  probably  the  very  copy  of  the  Old  Latin  version 
described  by  Cassiodorus  as  the  Codex  Grandior.     This  increases 

^  See  Chapman,  Notes  on  the  Early  History  of  the   Vulgate  Gospels^   19 
and  20. 


332  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

the  probability  that  the  ultimate  source  of  both  texts  was  the 
same  Cassiodorian  collection.  We  can  hardly  doubt,  there- 
fore, that  when  Benedict  Biscop  and  Ceolfrid  visited  Italy — 
very  largely,  no  doubt,  in  search  of  MSS.  and  other  requisites 
for  their  services  and  for  their  library — they  made  their  way 
to  Scyllacium,  whose  secluded  situation  protected  it  from  the 
ravage  which  was  then  overtaking  the  rest  of  Italy.  It  was 
doubtless  from  that  great  manufactory  of  MSS.  that  they 
secured  the  Codex  Grandior  which  they  took  back  with  them, 
and  it  was  there  also  that  they  commissioned  the  three  copies 
of  the  new  translation  which  are  mentioned  by  the  author  of 
Ceolfrid's  biography  and  by  Bede. 

Having  traced  the  later  history  of  the  codex  presented  by 
Ceolfrid  to  the  Pope  and  known  as  the  A?}iiatinus,  a  word  or 
two  may  be  said  about  the  other  copies  given  by  Ceolfrid  to 
his  two  monasteries  of  Jarrow  and  Monkwearmouth.  Until 
a  short  time  ago  these  codices  were  deemed  to  be  irretrievably 
lost.  A  leaf  from  one  of  them,  however,  has  been  recently 
recovered  by  Canon  Greenwell,  and  is  described  by  Mr.  Turner 
in  the  Journal  of  Theological  Studies^  vol.  x.  540-544.  It  was 
picked  up  in  a  bookseller's  shop  at  Newcastle. 

It  has  been  known  for  some  time  that  in  the  library  of 
Lord  Middleton  at  Wollaton,  near  Nottingham,  there  are  ten  leaves 
of  a  Bible  which  have  been  supposed  with  great  probability  to 
have  belonged  to  this  or  to  another  of  Ceolfrid's  codices.  They 
are  described  in  the  Report  of  the  Historical  MSS.  Commission 
for  igii,  196  and  611.  They  once  formed  the  covers  for 
chartularies  of  the  Willoughby  estates  which  were  bound 
not  earlier  than  the  reign  of  Edward  vi.  They  consist,  hke 
the  Greenwell  leaf,  of  parts  of  the  Book  of  Kings,  and  agree 
with  the  Greenwell  leaf  in  their  details.^  The  publication  of 
these  leaves,  it  is  understood,  has  been  undertaken  by  Mr. 
Turner.  It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  their  publication  has 
been  so  long  delayed,  for  the  precious  MS.  is  one  of  the  first 
moment  to  every  one  interested  in  Bible  studies. 

Some  fragments  of  a  codex  also  exist  at  Utrecht  bound  up 

with   the   famous    Utrecht    Psalter.     They  consist   of  parts   of 

Matthew  and   John.     Scrivener  and   Miller  speak   of  them  as 

written  in  an  Anglian   hand    strongly  resembling    that   of  the 

Codex  Amiatinus?     Mr.  Kenyon  says  the  fragments  are  written 

^  See  D.  S.  Boutflower,  The  Life  of  Ceolfrid,  1 14-116. 
2  Op.  cit,  ii.  83. 


APPENDIX  V 


333 


in  a  hand  closely  resembling  that  of  the  Amiatinus^  and 
evidently  p7'odiiced  in  the  same  scriptorium.^  This  points  to  the 
Utrecht  fragments  having  also  come  from  one  of  the  two  sister 
MSS.  given  by  Ceolfrid  to  his  two  abbeys. 

If,  then,  the  Codex  Amiatinus  be  traced  to  Italy  and  shown 
to  be  directly  derived  from  the  famous  pandect  in  nine  volumes 
prepared  by  Cassiodorus,  it  has  a  much  higher  title  to  our 
reverence  and  confidence.  We  can  now  confidently  affirm  of  one 
of  the  volumes  at  Jarrow — namely,  the  Codex  Grandior — that 
it  represented  very  faithfully  a  text  of  the  latter  part  of  the 
sixth  century,  and  not  later  than  580 ;  while  the  text  of  the 
three  pandects  of  the  New  Version  also  dated  from  the  same 
period  and  was  prepared  by  one  of  the  greatest  scholars  of  the 
time,  who  was  possessed  of  much  means  and  a  very  ample 
library,  and  had  devoted  great  pains  to  its  preparation  ;  and 
it  is  plain  that  by  an  analysis  of  the  Codex  Amiati7ius  we  shall 
ascertain  what  the  Bible  of  Cassiodorus  really  was.  It  may 
be,  indeed,  that  this  particular  copy  presented  to  the  Pope  was 
in  fact  the  Urtext  or  original  mother  MS.  compiled  by  and 
representing  the  syncretic  notions  of  Cassiodorus  himself. 

Let  us  now  shortly  analyse  the  contents  of  the  Codex 
Amiatinus^  or,  as  we  may  call  it,  the  Bible  of  Cassiodorus,  omitting 
the  first  eight  leaves,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  transferred 
from  another  text. 

On  page  9,  which  has  no  title,  we  find  St.  Jerome's  preface  to 
the  Pentateuch,  addressed  to  Desiderius.  Then  come  the  words 
in  larger  letters  which  are  gilt,  Explic.  Prolog.  Incip.  Capit.  Lib. 
Genes.  Then  follows  Genesis  in  63  chapters.  The  chapters  are 
generally  divided  into  verses,  which  are  shorter  than  those  in  the 
usual  editions.     It  ends  with  the  words  Explic.  Lib.  Gen. 

On  folio  50  we  have  Liber  Exodi.  Lticipiunt  Capit,  with  14 
chapters:  it  ends  with  the  words,  Explic.  ^^ Hellesmof'  id  est 
Exodus  Feliciter. 

On  folio  86  we  have  Lncip.  Capit.  Levitici,  with  16  chapters. 
At  the  end  we  read,  Expliciu?tt  Capitula.  Lncipit  liber  Leviticus 
qui  hebraice  dicitur  ^^vaiecra"  Lege  feliciter;  and  then,  Epl. 
Leviticus  qui  Hebraice  dicitur  "  Vaiecra.  Lege'*''  felix. 

On  fol.  no  we  have  L7icipiu7it  capitula  lib7'i  Nu77ieroru7n,  with 
19  chapters.  At  the  end,  Explic.  capit.  L7icipit  liber  Nu77icroru7n 
qui  appellatur  Hebraice  Vaieddaber  Gloria  individuae  trijiitati 
Amen. 

1  Op.  cit.  198. 


334  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

On  fol.  144  Deuteronomy  commences  without  any  title.     Its 

chapters  are  20,  and  it  ends  with  the  words  in  uncials,  Expliciunt 

Capitula.      Incipit  liber  Deuteronim  hebraice  dicitur  '•'■  Hellead- 

dabarwiy     Deo  laudes  ;  Lege  feliciter  Amen.     Or  a  pro  me^  with 

the  letters  arranged : 

P 

OR  A 

O 

M 
E 
Fol.   174.  The  prologue   to   Joshua,  after  which  come   the 
chapters  of  that  book,  numbering  10. 

Fol.  194.  The  words  Capitula  Judicum;  then  the  chapters, 
21  in  number. 

Fol.  215.  The  words  Incipit  Lib.  Ruth^  with  4  chapters, 
numbered  in  the  margin. 

Fol.  228.  Jerome's  prologue  to  "the  Kings,"  headed 
Praefatio  Regnorum.  Incipit  brevis,  with  90  chapters  in  a  con- 
tinuous numeration.  Chapter  xlvii.  begins  with  a  larger  capital 
than  the  other  chapters,  while  its  first  word  is  written  in 
gold  and  with  a  gap  as  if  beginning  a  new  book.  Then  comes 
another  enumeration  of  chapters,  one  in  30  and  the  other  in  24. 
Fol.  275.  Without  any  preface,  there  begin  here  the  chapters  of 
the  3rd  and  4th  Books  of  Kings,  84  in  number.  At  the  end  of 
the  3rd  book  is  the  word  Fiftis,  which  belongs  properly  to  chapter 
52.  Here  again  we  have  a  larger  initial  and  a  space,  while  all 
the  first  verse  is  gilt. 

The  former  two  books  are  entitled  at  the  tops  of  the  pages 
Samuhel,  and  the  latter  two  Malachim,  without  any  distinction 
into  first  and  second. 

Fol.  329.  The  two  books  of  Paralipomena,  with  the  title  and 
the  preface  of  St.  Jerome ;  between  the  two  is  a  space  and  a 
gilt  capital.  At  the  heads  of  the  pages  is  the  word  Paralipo- 
menon,  without  any  distinction  into  two  books. 

Fol.  379.  Without  any  title,  comes  the  Book  of  Psalms,  with 
Jerome's  preface  addressed  to  Sophronios.  Then  the  words 
Psalmus  David  de  Joseph  dicit  qui  Corpus  Christi  sepelivit. 

Fol.  419.  The  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  with  Jerome's  preface, 
in  30  chapters. 

Fol.  437.  The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  with  12  chapters. 
Fol.  443.  Liber  Caiiiicum  Canticorujn,  in  8  chapters. 
Fol.  447.  Sapientia  or  Wisdom,  in  13  chapters. 


APPENDIX  V  3  35 

Fol.  460.  Jerome's  preface  to  Ecclesiasticus,  then  the 
chapters  of  the  book,  26  in  number.  This  book  is  larger  in  this 
text  than  in  the  Vulgate.  At  the  end  we  have  the  words,  Liber 
Ecclesiasticus  Salamonis. 

Fol.  476.  Isaiah,  preceded  by  Jerome's  prologue  and  the  list 
of  chapters,  158  in  number. 

Fol.  536.  Jeremiah,  with  Jerome's  preface  and  ending  with 
the  words.  Explicit  liber  Hieretniae  Prophetae.  In  the  last  chapter 
are  contained  the  four  Lamentations  and  the  prayer  of  Jeremiah. 

Fol.  590.  Ezekiel,  with  Jerome's  prologue  and  the  index  of 
chapters,  no  in  number. 

Fol.  633.  Daniel  bears  the  title,  Incip.  Lib.  Da?iihelis  Prop. ; 
then  follows,  Praefatio  beati  Hierorifniy  followed  by  3 1  chapters. 
The  book  ends,  it  devorati  sunt  in  momtnto  coram  es.  Amen. 
Expl.  Danihel  Propheta, 

Fol.  650.  Then  follow  12  Prophetae  minores,  preceded  by 
Jerome's  preface.  Then  the  Elenchus  of  titles,  with  the  number 
of  chapters  in  each  book.  The  order  is  Osea  with  8  chapters, 
Joel  with  5,  Amos  with  10,  Abdea  with  i,  Jonah  with  2,  Micea 
with  7,  Naum  with  i,  Abacuc  with  3,  Sofonia  with  i,  Aggeo 
with   I,  Zaccaria  with  15,  and  Malachia  with  3. 

Fol.  682.  Job  with  36  chapters,  ending  Expliciunt  Capitula 
Job  I  Incipit  ipse  liber  feliciter. 

Fol.  701.  Tobias  with  prologue,  without  any  division  into 
chapters. 

Fol.  709.  Judith,  preceded  by  Jerome's  prologue  and  with 
the  enumeration  of  16  chapters. 

Fol.  729.  Esther,  with  its  prologue  and  division  into  16 
chapters. 

Fol.  730.  The  Book  of  Esdras,  preceded  by  Jerome's  preface 
and  forming  only  one  book  but  divided  into  two  parts,  the  first 
of  which  begins.  In  anno  prima  Cyri,  etc.;  the  second,  after  an 
interval  of  10  lines,  in  the  middle  of  which  in  larger  letters  is 
written  Neemia^  the  text  commencing.  Verba  Nee7}nae.  It  ends 
with  the  words  Expl.  Lib.  Ezrae  sive  Nee7niae.  It  contains  no 
ancient  enumeration  of  chapters.  It  will  be  noted  as  remarkable 
that  although  Cassiodorus  in  the  Codex  Amiatinus  follows  the 
old  Latin  Bible  in  his  canon,  he  apparently  fails  to  do  so  in 
ignoring  the  First  Book  of  Esdras  and  perhaps  the  Fourth. 
This  was  doubtless  due  to  the  very  ruthless  language  applied 
to  these  books  by  Jerome,  which  seems  to  have  overpowered  the 
judgment  of  the  great  scholar  of  Scyllacium. 


336  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Fol.  750.  The  two  books  of  Maccabees,  the  first  with  61 
and  the  second  with  55  chapters,  and  ending  with  the  words, 
Expliciunt  Machabeorum  libri  duo,  Deo  gratias  A77ien,  felicitis  qui 
legis  amen. 

It  seems  quite  plain  from  this  list  of  contents  that  the  mother 
text  from  which  the  Codex  Amiatinus  and  its  two  sisters  were 
copied  was  a  codex  written  under  the  superintendence  and 
direction  of  Cassiodorus  and  was  partially  the  result  of  his 
syncretic  work,  and  that  it  does  not  represent  Jerome's  un- 
adulterated text  at  all.  It  is  clear,  in  fact,  that  both  in  its  list  of 
contents  and  also  in  the  actual  books  it  varies  from  Jerome's  own 
Bible.  It  contains  several  books  treated  by  Jerome  as  un- 
canonical,  e.g.  Wisdom,  Ecclesiasticus,  Tobias,  Judith,  and  two 
books  of  Maccabees.  The  most  remarkable  evidence  that  points 
to  the  text  of  the  Codex  Amiatinus  as  it  stands  being  other  than 
Jerome's  text  is  to  be  found,  however,  in  a  comparison  of  its 
contents  with  those  of  Jerome's  actual  text  as  it  existed  in  the 
library  of  Cassiodorus  and  as  given  in  the  7  2th  chapter  of  his 
work  already  cited.  It  seems  impossible,  therefore,  to  claim  the 
Codex  Amiatinus  as  a  text  of  Jerome's  version,  much  less  as 
the  best  existing  type  of  that  version.  It  is  no  doubt  largely 
based  on  Jerome's  text,  but  it  seems  to  me  to  be  really  a  new 
edition  by  Cassiodorus.  This  conclusion  is  very  important  when 
we  remember  that  the  first  Carlovingian  Bibles  were  so  largely 
dependent  on  it. 

It  is  assuredly  also  a  matter  of  high  importance  for  the 
criticism  of  the  Latin  Bible  to  realise  that  we  have  in  the  Codex 
Amiatinus  and  in  Bede's  Biblical  extracts  samples  of  the  Eclectic 
Bible  text  accepted  in  the  sixth  century  a.d.  as  the  best  critical 
text  available  by  the  best  Biblical  scholar  of  that  age,  and  it 
greatly  enhances  the  value  and  importance  of  Bede's  quotations 
from  it. 

May  I  add  one  further  fact  which  strengthens  the  view  that 
in  the  Codex  Amiatinus  we  may  have  the  very  copy  of  the  New 
Bible  compiled  by  Cassiodorus  which  formed  his  critical  text, 
and  not  a  mere  copy  of  it  made  for  Ceolfrid — namely,  that  at 
the  end  of  the  prologue  to  Leviticus  we  have  a  barbarous  Greek 
inscription  in  the  words  : 

0  KYRIS  ^EP^SANAO:^  AI  nOIHQEN. 

These  words  show  that  when  he  wrote  them  Serbandus  or 
Servandus,  who  was  no  Englishman  but  the  Italian  scribe  of  the 


APPENDIX  V  3  37 

MS.,  was  living  in  a  part  of  Italy  where  Greek  was  still  under- 
stood, and  this  could  only  have  been  in  the  old  land  of  Magna 
Graecia  in  the  extreme  south  of  Italy.  Bishop  Browne  says  of 
this  entry  "  that  it  is  by  the  same  hand  as  the  rest" :  the  separa- 
tion of  AI  from  IIOIHSEN  (originally,  perhaps,  Hoiei)  should 
not  be  called  a  mistake,  for  we  have  here  other  examples  of 
spacing  out  so  as  to  make  one  word  into  two. 

Another  thing  occurs  to  me.  Such  enormous  pandects  as 
these  must  have  taken  a  long  time  to  write,  and  could  not  have 
been  written  during  Ceolfrid's  short  stay  in  Italy.  They  must 
either  have  been  sent  after  him  to  England,  or  else,  which  is  more 
probable,  there  were  copies  of  the  very  fine  text  of  Cassiodorus, 
which  were  kept  for  sale  at  the  great  scriptorium  at  Scyllacium.^ 

1  may  further  add  that  in  the  library  at  Durham,  B,  ii.  30, 
is  a  copy  of  the  Commentary  of  Cassiodorus  on  the  Psalms, 
traditionally  said  to  have  been  written  by  Bede.^  In  an  early 
list  of  the  Durham  books  it  is  referred  to  in  the  margin  with  the 
words  '*  Manu  Bedae."  This  may  also  have  been  brought  from 
Scyllacium  by  Ceolfrid. 

^  Professor  White,  who  has  read  this  paper,  assures  me  that  he  only  finds 
one  difficulty  in  accepting  the  view  here  maintained,  namely,  that  it  involves 
Ceolfrid  sending  back  to  the  Pope  as  a  present  what  he  had  himself  bought 
in,  and  brought  back  from  Rome.  This  does  not  seem  to  me  so  strange. 
As  I  have  shown  in  my  history  of  Si.  Gregory  the  Great,  perhaps  no  part  of 
the  Mediterranean  lands  was  at  this  time  so  poor  in  books  as  Rome  and  the 
Roman  territory.  The  libraries  there  had  apparently  been  utterly  destroyed, 
and  the  great  Pope,  in  writing  to  his  correspondents,  excuses  himself  for  not 
being  able  to  lend  them  books  because  they  were  so  hard  to  obtain  in  Rome, 
and  confesses  that  some  very  important  ones  could  not  be  found  there, 
notably  the  great  work  of  Tertullian,  and  even  such  necessary  books  as 
authoritative  copies  of  the  Conciliar  Canons.  How  likely  would  it  be  there- 
fore, that  when  the  great  library  at  Scyllacium  was  broken  up  and  dispersed, 
some  of  its  treasures  having  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  book-loving  monks 
of  Northumbria,  one  of  them,  Ceolfrid,  who  had  secured  treasures  from  that 
source,  should  combine  two  of  the  great  books  to  form  a  lordly  volume  to 
place  at  the  feet  of  the  Pontiff  his  master,  as  the  most  valued  gift  he  could 
make  him. 

2  Plummer,  Bede,  i.  xx,  note  3. 


VOL.  III. — 2  2 


CORRECTIONS    AND    NOTES 

VOLUME   I 

Ixiii  .  .  .  23."*^ — In  regard  to  Bede's  view  of  Purgatory,  he 
says  :  *'  Sufit  qui  de  levioribus  peccatis^  quibus  obligati  defuncti  sunt^ 
post  mortem  possunt  absolvi ;  vel  poeiiis  .  .  .  casttgati,  vel  suorum 
precibus,  eleeffiosy?its,  missariim  celebrationibus  absoluti.  "  ^  Purga- 
tory with  him  is  only  for  the  cleansing  of  lesser  sins  (x.  349  and 
350;  cf.  vii.  355,  V.  38i).2 

Ixix  .  .  .  28. — There  is  no  question  about  the  kind  of  cult 
in  which  these  relics  had  a  part.  They  were  not  used  merely  to 
recall  the  memory  of  the  saints  to  whom  they  had  once  belonged, 
but  were  themselves  "  adored  or  worshipped."  Thus  Bede,  speak- 
ing of  the  departure  of  Ceolfrid  for  Italy,  says  :  "  adorat  crucemT  ^ 
In  the  Anonymous  Life  the  words  are  :  "  adorat  ad  crucem.^  St. 
Ecgbert  wished  to  go  to  Rome  "  ad  vide?ida  et  adoranda  beatorum 
apostoloriDH  et  7nartyriim  Christi  limina  cogitavit.  "  ^  Of  Benedict 
Biscop,  Bede  said:  ^^ beatoru?n  apostolorum  loca  corporum  cor- 
poraliter  visere  atque  adorare  curavit,^''  ^  And,  again,  of  Ceolfrid  : 
"^(?  vidisse  et  adorasse  recorda?is  exultabat"  Relics  were  deemed 
essential  to  the  due  consecration  of  a  church. 

Ixxvi  .  .  .  29. — On  this  subject  Lingard  writes:  "During 
this  period  the  power  of  canonising  saints  was  exercised  by  the 
provincial  bishops  and  national  councils.  The  first  instance  of 
a  solemn  canonisation  by  the  Pope  occurs  in  the  year  993,  when 
John  XV.,  after  a  diligent  inquiry  into  the  life  and  virtues  of 
Ulric,  Bishop  of  Augsburg,  enrolled  him  among  the  saints.  It 
was  not  till  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  that  the 
privilege  of  canonisation  was  reserved  to  the  Holy  See  by 
Alexander  in.     From  that  period  to  the  accession  of  Clement 

*  These  numbers  refer  to  pages  and  lines  of  each  volume. 

^  Bede,  0pp. ,  ix.  96.  ^  Plummer's  Bede^  i.  Ixvi,  note  8. 

3  Bede,  Hist.  Abb.,  ed.  Plummer,  p.  382.  ^  lb.  398. 

5  Bede,  H.E.,  v.  ch.  9.  ^  Bede,  Hist.  Abb.,  p.  365. 

339 


340  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

XIII.,  in  1758,  one  hundred  and  fifteen  persons  had  been 
solemnly  canonised."  ^ 

At  first,  the  Church  of  Rome  admitted  none  but  martyrs 
into  the  catalogue  of  saints.  From  different  calendars  in 
Muratori,2  it  appears  that  the  names  of  confessors  were  after- 
wards introduced  (but  very  sparingly),  namely,  those  of  St. 
Silvester  in  the  fourth,  St.  Martin  of  Tours  in  the  sixth,  and  St. 
Gregory  in  the  seventh  centuries.  In  the  Collectarium  we  only 
find  the  additional  name  of  St.  Benedict  on  the  5th  of  the  ides 
of  July,  "  manifestly,"  says  Lingard,  "  an  interpolation  after  the 
reported  transport  of  his  relics  to  Fleury.  Neither  is  there  a 
single  name  of  any  British,  Scottish,  or  Anglo-Saxon  saint. 
Thus,  neither  Aidan  nor  Cuthberht,  though  their  festivals  were 
solemnly  kept  at  Lindisfarne  and  Chester-le-Street,  were  in  the 
Collectarium^  nor  were  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Boniface  ;  although 
a  Gallic  saint,  St.  Martin,  occurs  in  it."  Lingard  thinks  the  book 
just  quoted  belonged  to  the  Abbey  of  St.  Martin  at  Tours.^ 

Ixxxiii  .  .  .  8. — There  still  remain  two  works  which  tradition 
claims  to  have  been  in  Bede's  own  handwriting.  One  of  them 
is  a  Durham  MS.,  B,  ii.  30,  and  is  a  copy  of  the  commentary 
of  Cassiodorus  on  the  Psalms,  which  has  a  marginal  note  in  a 
fourteenth-century  hand  claiming  it  as  his  handiwork.* 

A  second  work  is  a  fragment  of  St.  Paul's  epistles  in  the 
Cottonian  Collection,  Vitell.  C,  viii.  fol.  83.  Wanley  in  his 
Catalogue  of  Saxon  MSS.,  241,  says  he  had  seen  a  copy  of  St. 
Paul's  epistles  written  in  the  same  hand,  and  then  in  the  library 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  He  further  says  the  Rushworth 
copy  of  the  Gospels  was  also  reputed  to  have  belonged  to  him. 
Stevenson  says  of  it :  "  All  which  we  can  assert  is  that  the  MS. 
is  certainly  of  Bede's  time,  and  that  the  language  in  which  it  is 
glossed  is  Northumbrian."  ^ 

Ixxxv  .  .  .  II. — Bede's  greatest  distinction  was  probably  this 
mention  of  him  by  Dante  in  his  immortal  work,  where  he  puts 
him  next  to  Isidore  in  Paradise  : 

*'  Vedi  oltre  flam7neggiar  Vardente  spiro 
D' Isidore,  di  Beda''^ 


^  Lingard,  Anglo-Saxon  Church,  ii.  89. 

2  de  reb.  Liiur.,  ch.  iv.  27-33.  ^  Op.  cit.  ii.  361  and  362. 

4  See  Pal.  Soc.  Trans.,  Plate  164. 

^  Church  Hist,  of  England,  i.  part  ii.  xxi. 

^  Faraa.,  x.  1 30  and  13 1. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  341 

In  his  letter  to  the  Italian  Cardinals,  Dante  speaks  of  Bede 
as  one  of  his  subjects  of  study. ^  It  was  no  doubt  from  Bede  he 
derived  some  of  the  eschatology  which  he  seems  to  have  taken 
over  from  Fursey,  Dryhthelm,  and  others,  as  presented  in  Bede's 
History.  Gebhardt,  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  writing  in  1087, 
says  that  Bede's  homilies  were  in  his  time  read  annually  in 
Church. 2 

Ixxxvii  .  .  .  30. — According  to  William  of  Malmesbury,  the 
following  lines  were  inscribed  on  his  tomb  at  Jarrow : 

^''Presbyter  hie  Beda  requicscit  came  sepultus 
Dona,   Christe,  animam  in  coelis  gaudere  per  aevum 
Daqtie  illi  sophiae  debriari  fonte,  ctii  jain 
Snspiravit  ovans  intento  semper  arnore.^^ 

When  Bede's  remains  were  translated  by  Bishop  Hugh  Pudsey 
in  1 1 04,  they  were  placed  in  a  casket  of  gold  and  silver  and 
deposited  in  the  Galilee  in  the  cathedral  which  had  been  just 
completed  at  Durham,  and  a  new  inscription  was  placed  over 
them,  namely : 

"  Continet  haec  thee  a  Bedae  venerabilis  ossa 
Sensum  faetori  Christus  dedit,  aesque  dator, 
Petrus  opus  feeit ;  praesul  dedit  hoe  H^igo  domn?i, 
Sic  in  utroque  suujn  veneratiis  utrtimque  patronutn.''''^ 

A  second  translation  took  place  in  1370.^ 

In  November  1541,  Pudsey's  shrine,  together  with  Bede's 
relics,  were  removed  from  Durham  and  destroyed.  The  stone 
on  which  it  stood  still  remains,^  and  I  have  given  a  representation 
of  it. 

Ixxxviii  .  .  .  33. — The  number  of  Latin  authors  known 
to  certain  mediaeval  writers  must  not  be  measured  by  their 
quotations.  The  fact  is,  most  of  their  knowledge  was  second- 
hand. Wright  says  :  "  At  Rome,  the  classical  writers  had  long 
ceased  to  be  popular;  for  the  zeal  which  often  led  the 
Christians,  in  their  estimation  of  the  sentiment,  into  an  in- 
judicious depreciation  of  the  language  when  adorned  only  by 
its  own  beauties,  had  already  condemned  them  to  that  neglect 
under  which  many  of  them  were  perishing.  Those  which  are 
preserved  we  owe  in  a  great  measure  to  the  grammarians  who 

^  Plummer,  Bede,  i.  xli,  note  4.  -  lb.  ii,  xlviii 

^Stowe,  Harl.  MS.,  367,  fol.  75.  ^  lb.  fol.  76 

^  See  Stevenson,  Bede,  xx.  and  xxi. 


342   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

flourished  in  the  latter  days  of  the  Empire,  such  as  Priscian  and 
Donatus,  who  by  their  continual  quotations  gave  some  of  them 
a  certain  value  in  the  eyes  of  men  who  made  those  grammarians 
an  important  part  of  their  studies.  It  is  almost  solely  in 
grammatical  treatises  that  we  find  these  authors  quoted  during 
the  age  which  produced  the  principal  Latin  writers  among  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  although  most  of  the  Anglo-Latin  poets  were 
continually  endeavouring  to  imitate  them."  ^ 

xc  .  .  ,  17. — One  reason  given  by  Bede  for  writing  his 
commentaries  was  the  great  expense  of  the  original  works  on 
which  they  were  based  :  "  tarn  copiosa  ut  vix,  nisi  a  locupletioribus 
tot  volumina  acqiii?'i.  .  .  .  va/ea/it.^'  ^  He  had  himself  suffered 
from  the  need  of  books.  Thus,  in  speaking  of  the  Catena  of 
Paterius  on  the  passages  in  St.  Gregory's  works  from  the  Bible, 
he  says :  "  quod  opus  si  haberefn  ad  mafius,  facilius  multo  .  .  . 
studium  meae  voluntatis  i^nplereji  .  .  .  veruni  .  .  .  necdum  illud 
merui  videre.'''' ^  Hence  his  desire  to  popularise  the  knowledge 
which  he  had  acquired  "^//  ad plurimos  res  ipsa  perveniat.^^  ^ 

Raine  says  of  Bede's  Biblical  commentaries,  that  he  could 
not  help  thinking  they  were  intended  to  be  the  text-books  of 
the  Northumbrian  province,  and  that  they  largely  owe  their 
existence  to  Acca,  who  seems  to  have  been  his  patron.  Thus 
it  was  to  him  that  Bede  dedicated  a  poem  in  hexameters  on  the 
Day  of  Judgment,  also  his  Hexameron  and  Commentary  on  St. 
Mark's  Gospel.  Bede  did  not  propose  to  write  a  similar  one  on 
St.  Luke,  since  St.  Ambrose  had  already  done  so ;  upon  which 
Acca  urged  him  to  do  it,  in  a  very  pleasantly  written  letter,  in 
which  he  quotes  both  sacred  and  profane  writers.  A  touch  of 
humour  is  apparent  here  and  there.  Thus  in  one  place  he  says 
to  his  friend,  ''^  Beatum  Lucam  luculento  sermone  exponeJ'  In  his 
reply  Bede  assents  to  his  request,  and  speaks  of  himself  as  being 
his  own  dictator,  notary,  and  librarian.^ 

xc  .  .  .  18. — Bede's  expository  work  is  mainly  allegorical. 
This  method  was  chiefly  due  to  the  influence  of  Origen,  which 
greatly  affected  a  large  part  of  patristic  and  mediaeval  exegesis. 
We  see  its  beginning,  however,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
Bede  cites  the  latter  as  justifying  his  method :  ^  "  Vestigia  ejus 


^  Biog.  Lit.,  41.  -  Opera,  vii.  1-2.  ^  lb.  ix.  388. 

^  Plummer,  Bede,  i.  xxiii,  note. 

^Acca's  letter  is  printed  at  length  in  Raine's  Hexham,  pp.  33  and  34, 
note. 

«  0pp.,  SIX.  175. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTP:S  343 

sectmites."  "  It  rests  on  the  belief  that  nothing  in  Scripture  can 
be  without  significance.  Thus  hours  and  places,  names  and 
numbers  are  full  of  meaning.  He  uses  the  word  sacrament  to 
mean  not  the  outward  sign  of  spiritual  grace,  but  the  inner  and 
spiritual  meaning  of  an  external  fact,  or  narrative,  or  name.  St. 
Paul  in  2  Cor.  x.  ii  (Vulgate)  is  specially  quoted.  Christ's 
parables  were  meant  to  teach  us  to  look  below  the  surface  of 
things.  Moses  must  have  wished  to  give  more  than  historical 
information."  I  cannot  resist  quoting  Mr.  Plummer's  illuminating 
note  on  various  examples  of  Bede's  interpretation  : 

"  Here  are  some  of  these  *  leges  allegoriaeJ     A  dove    must 
always  signify  the  Spirit  because  of  Luke  iii.  22  {0pp.,  ix.  336; 
x.  178).     Silver  =  the  Word  of  God  because  of  Ps.  xi.  7   (viii. 
380,  381 ;  xi.  281,  and  seq.).     Wood  =  the  Gospel,  for  the  Cross 
was  made  of  wood  (viii.  295).     Stone  =  the  Law,  because  it  was 
written  on  tables    of  stone   (viii.   295;   x.   254;    xi.  341,  375); 
but   it  also    meant  hard   hearts,    because   of   Ezek.    xxxvi.    26 
(x.  345).     A  millstone  =  the  wicked,  because  of  Ps.   xi.  9,    ^  in 
cirmitii  impii  ambulant^  (xii.  422).     Thorns  =  sins;  cf.  Gen.  iii. 
18   (x.    238).     A  reed  =  Scripture,   as    written  with  a    reed  pen 
(x.  239,  248).     But  it  also  =  the  carnal  mind,  because  it  is  easily 
deflected  (xi.  47).      Left  and   right  mean  respectively   present 
and  eternal  things,  because  of  Prov.  iii.  16,  '  Longitudo  dierum 
in  dexter  a  eius,  et  in  sinistra  illiiis  divitiae  et  gloria^   (x.   279). 
The  arm   of  God  is  the  Son,  because  of  John  i.  3,  '  omnia  per 
ipsu7n  facta  su?it '  (x.  296  ;  xi.  140).    The  fmger  of  God  is  the  Spirit, 
Luke  xi.  20,  compared  with  Matt.  xii.  28  (xi.  141).     Most  curious 
of  all:   ^ sputu?n  {i.e.  the  spittle)  .  .  .  Do77iini  saporetn  designat 
sapientiae,  quae  .  .  .  loquitur:  ^^  Ego  ex  ore  Altissi7fii prodiui"  ^ 
(Ecclus.  xxiv.  5)  (x.  112).     Again:  ^  Lutu7n  de  terra  caro  Christi 
est.     Sputu77i  de  ore,  diuinitas  ejus  est,  quia  "  caput  Christi  Deus  "  ' 
(i  Cor.   xi.   3)  (x.   381).     Other  instances  are   these:    Skins  = 
death  (ix.   343;  x.  9,  87,  349).     Loins  =  succession,  generation 
(ix.  344;  xii.  426).     Fish  =  faith  (x.  135).     Sea  =  present  world 
(x.   67).     Water  =  Spirit,   but  also  =  depth  of  intellect  (xii.  441, 
442).     Mountain  =  the  Devil  (x.  181).     A  good  deal  of  Bede's 
symbolism  is  borrowed  from   the  traditional  natural  history  of 
his   time,   e.g.  the  dove  (v.  170,  174,  175;  ix.  228,   243,   244; 
cf.  Ltft.,  App.  Ff.  II.  iii.  390,  391)  ;  the  stag  (ix.  80,  238);  the 
goat  (ix.  238,  240,  348) ;  the  fox  (ix.  248) ;  the  elephant  (ix.  316); 
the  eagle  (xi.  61,  257);  the  cedar  (ix.  230);  the  mulberry  tree 
(xi.  242);  precious  stones  (xii.  437-447). 


344  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

"  But  it  is  in  dealing  with  numerals  that  this  method  reaches 
its  most  elaborate  results ;  and  here,  too,  Bede  was  following 
Isidore,  who  wrote  a  special  treatise  on  the  numbers  of  Scripture 
{Diet,  of  Christ.  Biog.,  iii.   309).     Arator   also  influenced  him 
(Werner,    p.    191;    Sanday,    u.s.,    pp.   35,    56).     Thus:    |  =  im- 
perfection  (vii.   235,   243).     2  =  the  two  Testaments  (vii.   305); 
=  Jews  and  Gentiles  (vii.  308) ;  =  the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of 
our  own  neighbour  (viii.  279) ;   =  mutual  love  (vii.  240  ;  viii.  301). 
But   it   also  =  division,  discord,   etc.  (xi.   178).     3  =  the  Trinity 
(vii.  312,  330);    =  heart,  soul,  and  strength  (vii.  312;  x.  363); 
=  the  theological  virtues — faith,  hope,  charity  (vii.  301,   314); 
=  the    three    evangelical    virtues — almsgiving,     prayer,    fasting 
(viii.  269);   =  Resurrection  on  the  third  day  (viii.  422);    =the 
married,  continent,  and  virgins  (xi.  189);    =the  three  continents 
— Europe,  Asia,  Africa  (v.  4 ;  xii.  48).     4  =  the  Gospels  (vii.  308, 
314;  cf.  Sanday,  u.s.,  pp.  309  ff.) ;    =the  four  quarters  of  the 
world  (vii.  301,  308);    =the  four  cardinal  virtues — temperance, 
fortitude,  justice,  prudence  (vii.  269,  295  j   x.  399);   =the  four 
elements  (vii.  349) ;  =  the  four  seasons  of  the  year,  and  the  four 
humours  or  elements  of  the  body  (vii.  430-431 ;  viii.  351,  comp.  x. 
363).     5  =  the  five  books  of  Moses  or  the  Law  {0pp. ^  vii.  299; 
viii.  353);    =the  five  senses  (vii.  301,  315;  x.  357);    =the  five 
ages  of  the  world  before  Christ  (viii.  353).     6  =  perfection  of  work, 
because  God  made  the  world  in  six  days  (vii.  253;    viii.  48; 
xii.  358).     7  =  the  Spirit  and  His  sevenfold  gifts  (xii.  441,  etc.); 
=  the  Sabbath  and  rest  (vii.  314);    =  penitence,  because  of  the 
seven  penitential  psalms  (vii.  407),  perfection  or  wholeness  (vi. 
268;  vii.  383;  xi.  61;  xii.  340);  but  seven  may  also  be  treated 
as  4  and  3  (viii.  351  ;  x.  363  ;  xii.  345).     8  =  the  Resurrection  on 
the  eighth  day  of   the  week,  which   is  also  the  first  (vii.  314; 
viii.   271).      It   may  also  mean  the   day  of  Judgment,  because 
it    follows    the    seven    days    of   the    world's    ages    (viii.    319)." 
9  is  omitted  by  Mr.  Plummer;  I  do  not  know  why.     "  10  =  the 
Decalogue  (vii.  362,  etc.);    =the  name  of  Jesus,  of  which  the 
initial    letter   has    this    numerical   value    {it>.)',     =the   heavenly 
reward  and  rest,  because  of  the  de?iarius,  which  the  labourers 
in  the  Lord's  vineyard  received  (vii.  313;  viii.  9);  but  10  =  also 
5x2   (viii.  353).      1 1  =  transgression,  because  it  is  one   beyond 
the  number  of  the  Commandments  (vii.  82  ;  xii.  10,  417).     12  = 
wholeness  (v.  180).     It  also  =  3  x  4  with  their  various  interpreta- 
tions   (vii.    338-9;    viii.    333,    421;  ix.   334;    x.  44;    xi.   436). 
50=  jubilee,  rest,  remission  (v.  78;  vii.  312  and  313;  viii.  298). 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  345 

It   also  =  the    Pentecostal   gift    of    the   Spirit  (vii.    316).     The 
larger   the    figures    the   greater   the   number   of    combinations. 
For  15,  see  xi.  391  ;  vii.  no,  314.     For  18,  viii.  322;  xi.  181-2. 
For  20,  see  vii.  362-3,  comp.  423.       For  24,  see  xii.  356-7. 
For  30,  X.  356;  xi.  67.     For  40,  vii.    108,  230;  x.  13;  xii.  136. 
The  sum  of  the  component  parts  of  40  yields  50,  from  which 
Bede   deduces   the  lesson   that  the  40   days   during  which  the 
risen    Saviour   goes    in  and  out  among   His    disciples   on    this 
earth  lead  to  the  jubilee  of  eternal  rest  (xii.  14).     For  42,  see  x 
364.     For  60,  ix.  260,  334.     For  70,  xii.  340.     For  75,  vii.  157 
For  77,  X.  363.     For  80,  ix.  334.     For  84,  x.  335.     For  85,  viii 
159.     For  100,  vii.  310,  311  ;  x.  62  ;  xi.  67.     For  120,  viii.  286 
xii.  10.     For  144,  see  xii.  340,  367,  401,  437.     For  300,  x.  365 
For  318,  vii.    173.     For  365,    vii.   89.     For  888,  x.   321.     For 
1000,  viii.  113;  ix.  383.     For  1600,  xii.  407."  ^ 

xcii  .  .  .  40. — Bede  secured  additional  materials  after  he 
wrote  the  preface  to  his  prose  life  of  Cuthberht,  which  he  did 
not  care  to  use  at  the  time.  In  MS.  Fairfax  two  additional 
paragraphs,  numbered  31  and  32,  are  added.^ 

xciv  .  .  .  32. — In  Werner's  Beda  der  Ehrwiirdige  und  seine 
Zeit.^  pp.  121-49,  the  nature  and  importance  of  Bede's  great 
reform  in  dating  are  fully  discussed.  The  new  method  was 
not  used  in  papal  documents  till  the  eleventh  century.  Bede's 
motive  in  discussing  the  subject  at  length  was,  no  doubt,  to  settle 
the  Paschal  controversy. 

xcix  .  .  .  29. — Having  finished  his  History  in  731,  Bede  sent 
a  copy  to  King  Ceolfrid  for  revision,  and  on  its  return  he  made 
some  alterations  and  then  issued  it  as  we  have  it,  adding,  first,  the 
prologue  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  the  King ;  secondly,  probably 
the  passage  about  Charles  Martel's  great  victory  in  the  Pyrenees  ; 
and,  thirdly,  the  appendix  containing  notices  about  himself.  This 
was  apparently  all  written  in  732.  The  mention  of  himself  in 
the  Historia  Ecclesiastica,  in  chapter  24,  also  points  to  the  same 
conclusion  ;  732  was  his  fifty-ninth  year,  so  that  he  was  born  in 
674.     This  also  agrees  with  Florence  of  Worcester. 

ci  .  .  .  9. — The  chronological  epitome  which  forms  chapter  24 
of  the  fifth  book  of  the  Historia  Ecclesiastica  is  not  alike  in  all  the 
MSS.  Certain  entries  apparently  occur  only  in  some  of  them. 
Among  these  are  the  notices  under  the  years  538  and  540,  both 
relating  to  solar  eclipses,  and  547,  dealing  with  King  Ida.  In 
addition,  we  have  three  entries  relating  to  Mercia  dated  in  675, 
^  Plummer,  Bede^  i.  lix,  note.  -  Vide  0pp.,  MS.,  p.  4. 


346  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

697,  and  698,  and  one  in  711  about  the  fight  between  Berhtfrid 
and  the  Picts.  In  all  these  cases  the  entries  have  nothing 
corresponding  to  them  in  the  body  of  the  Historia  Ecclesiastica. 

They  all  occur  in  the  earlier  editions  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle,  and  it  is  therefore  plain  either  that  the  author  of  the 
latter  used  one  of  the  copies  in  question ;  or  the  entries  in  these 
copies  were  interpolations  taken  from  the  Chronicle ;  or  thirdly, 
that  these  copies  and  the  Chronicle  had  a  common  source,  both 
of  which  latter  hypotheses  are  unlikely. 

cxi  .  .  .  7. — A  criticism  of  ^ddi's  work  in  regard  to  its 
merits  as  an  authority,  by  Mr.  R.  W.  Wells,  may  be  found  in 
the  E7ig.  Hist.  Revieiv.  It  reached  me  after  most  of  this  work 
was  written.  It  was  pleasant  to  find  that  we  had  arrived  at 
almost  the  same  conclusions  independently.  It  is  a  very  good 
piece  of  work. 

cxii  .  .  .  30. — The  work  was  dedicated  to  Bishop  Ecgberht 
of  Lindisfarne,  who  ruled  that  see  from  802-820.  In  chapter 
16  of  the  poem  the  author  claims  to  have  written  another  one 
on  the  holy  men  of  England,  one  of  whom  was  the  lector  Hyglac  : 

' '  De  quo  jamdudum  perstensis  pauca  relatii 
Anglorum  de  gente  pios  du?n  carine  quosdam 
Jam  cleoini  indoct7cs,  vilisqiie  per  omnia  scriptor.^'' 

cxiii  .  .  .  23. — I  here  propose  to  give  some  short  notices 
of  some  of  the  lives  of  the  saints  which  I  have  found  useful  in 
the  preceding  work,  and  which  I  did  not  think  sufficiently 
important  to  put  in  the  Introduction, 

The  Life  of  St.  Oswald,  composed  by  Reginald  of  Durham, 
although  a  twelfth-century  document,  was  written  by  a  capable 
and  industrious  person,  who  collected  traditions  and  stories 
assiduously.  It  has  been  well  edited  as  a  third  appendix  to 
volume  i.  of  the  works  of  Symeon  of  Durham  by  Mr.  T.  Arnold  in 
the  Rolls  Series.  Reginald  also  composed  a  life  of  St.  Aebba 
or  Ebba,  which  amplifies  Bede's  notice  of  her.  It  is  found  in 
the  Acta  Sanctorum,  25  th  August.  A  similar  life  of  St.  Oswy, 
dating  as  it  stands  from  the  twelfth  century,  also  contains  some 
traditional  matter  of  interest.  This  Life  was  published  by  the 
Surtees  Society  in  its  volume  entitled  Miscellanea  Biographica. 

Jocelyn,  the  famous  eleventh-century  biographer  of  saints, 
produced  more  than  one  which  I  have  found  useful  in  the 
preceding  pages,  e.g.  a  life  of  St.  Mildred  and  an  account  of  the 
passion  of  the  martyr  princes  Ethelred  and  Ethelberht,  grandsons 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  347 

of  Eadbald,  King  of  Kent.     These  Lives  by  Jocelyn  were  freely 
used  by  Florence  of  Worcester  and  Symeon  of  Durham. 

The  life  of  St.  yEtheldrytha  by  Thomas  of  Ely,  forming 
the  first  part  of  his  compilation  on  the  history  of  that  monastery, 
contains  a  good  deal  of  local  matter  of  interest ;  an  excellent 
abridgment  of  it  is  contained  in  Anglia  Sacra  (Wharton). 

A  life  of  St.  Eata,  one  of  the  pupils  of  St.  Aidan,  who  became 
prior  of  Hexham  and  afterwards  of  Lindisfarne,  and  was  buried 
near  the  presbytery  at  Hexham,  is  attributed  to  Ailred  of 
Rievaulx  by  Hardy,  and  is  printed  in  the  Miscellanea  Biographica 
of  the  Surtees  Society.     It  is  of  slight  value. 

A  life  of  Erkenwald,  Bishop  of  London,  is  printed  by 
Dugdale  in  his  History  of  St.  PauVs^  pp.  293-94.  It  has  been 
attributed  to  Jocelyn,  but  Hardy  thinks  it  was  composed  by  a 
canon  of  that  cathedral,  nephew  of  Bishop  Gilbert,  who  also 
wrote  an  account  of  his  miracles  and  translation  about  1140.^ 

A  Hfe  of  St.  Sexburga  attributed  to  Jocelyn,  and  partly 
based  on  an  Anglo-Saxon  one  of  which  a  fragment  remains 
(MS.  Lambeth,  427),  adds  little  or  nothing  to  Bede's  story. 
It  is  printed  in  Capgrave's  Nova  Legenda  Aurea.'^ 

Folcard,  vvho  wrote  the  life  of  St.  John  of  Beverley,  also 
wrote  a  biography  of  St.  Botulf,  which  contains  some  notable 
fables.     It  is  printed  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum^  17th  June,  iii.  402. 

This  Hfe  of  St.  Botulf  shows  from  its  prologue  that  it  was 
written  in  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century. 

St.  Cuthburga,  wife  of  Ealdfrid,  King  of  Northumbria,  and 
afterwards  the  foundress  of  the  Abbey  of  Wimborne,  is  not 
named  by  Bede,  but  her  story  is  told  by  Florence  of  Worcester 
and  William  of  Malmesbury.  An  account  of  her  in  MS. 
Lansdowne,  436,  fol.  38-41,  is  chiefly  devoted  to  a  dialogue 
between  her  and  her  husband,  whom  she  addresses  as  "  super 
modernos  reges  literarum  eruditus  scientia " ;  and  to  a  sermon 
addressed  to  her  by  her  nuns.^ 

A  life  of  St.  Ecgwin,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  another  saint 
unmentioned  by  Bede,  is  preserved  in  the  Cott.  MS.,  Nero  E,  i., 
which  is  of  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century,  and  is  the  chief 
authority  for  his  doings.  It  was  composed  by  Brithwald,  a 
monk  of  Worcester.  It  was  probably  put  together  at  the  end 
of  the  tenth  or  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  and  claims 
to  be  founded  on  Ecgwin's  own  autobiography."^ 

^  Cat.  Brit.  Hist.,  i.  293  and  294.         ^  lb.  i.  360. 

^  lb.  i.  384.  ^  7(5.  415  ;  also  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  470. 


348   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

cxxvi  .  .  .  24. — It  is  curious  that  the  only  other  document 
said  to  have  emanated  from  Adeodatus  is  also  a  letter  addressed 
to  the  Bishops  of  Gaul,  declaring  that  though  the  Holy  See  was 
not  wont  to  exempt  monasteries  from  episcopal  control,  yet  as 
the  Bishop  of  Tours  had  himself  exempted  the  monastery 
of  St.  Martin,  he  would  confirm  the  exemption  of  this  house 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ordinary.  This  document  has  been 
accepted  by  that  very  credulous  and  unsafe  guide  Pagi,  but 
has  been  generally  rejected  by  French  scholars. 

cxl  .  .  .  30. — By  an  inadvertence  I  overlooked  mentioning 
in  the  Introduction  a  charter  professing  to  be  granted  by 
Chlothaire  (Leutherius),  Bishop  of  the  West  Saxons,  to  Aldhelm 
the  priest.  As  it  is  dated  on  August  the  26th,  670,  by  the 
Incar?iation,  it  is  clearly  marked  out  as  spurious.  It  is  written 
in  very  inflated  Latin.  The  grantor  styles  \\\vs\se\i  ^^  Leutherius 
pontificatus  Saxoniei  gubernacula  regens,''^  and  recites  that  he  had 
been  asked  by  the  abbots  presiding  over  the  monasteries  in  his 
diocese  {parochid)  to  make  the  gift  for  the  purpose  of  enlarging 
the  monastery.  The  place  so  granted  was  called  "  Maldumes- 
burg"  {i.e.  Malmesbury),  where,  it  says,  Aldhelm  had  spent  his 
infancy  and  learnt  his  early  lessons.  It  was  professedly  signed 
near  the  river  Bladon,  and  is  attested  by  Leutherius  isic)^  as 
Bishop,  Cunuberhtus  the  Abbot,  Haedde  the  Abbot,  and  others. 
Dr.  William  Wright  in  his  Biog.  Brit..,  i.  212-213,  has  dissected 
this  charter  and  shown  how  impossible  it  is  to  trust  it.  It 
is  rejected  by  Kemble,   who   numbers    it  xi.  ;    Birch    numbers 

it  37- 

cxlv  .  .  .  25. — A  second  deed  which  I  overlooked  is 
marked  45  by  Kemble  (who  rejects  it)  and  100  by  Birch,  and 
consists  of  the  confirmation  of  a  grant  by  King  Ini  to  Abbot 
Hean  of  lands  at  Bradanafel  and  Bestlesforda,  at  Stretlee  and 
^aromundeslee,  with  the  consent  of  Archbishop  Brihtwald  {i.e. 
Beorhtwald)  and  Bishop  Daniel.  It  is  dated  by  the  Incarnation 
in  the  year  687,  which  is  of  course  impossible,  and  is  witnessed 
by  King  Ini  of  Wessex,  yEthelred,  King  of  Mercia,  by  ^Flthelfrith, 
and  Bishop  Daniel.  Winberht  signs  it  as  the  scribe  of  the 
document. 

4  .  .  .  16. — In  the  Vita  S.  Oswaldi  it  is  suggested  that 
Cadvan  arranged  a  marriage  for  his  son  Caedwalla  with  Oswald's 
sister.^ 

^  Appendix  to  Sym.  of  Durha?n,  ed.  Arnold,  i.  345. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  349 

4  .  .  .  17. — Haethfeldt  has  been  identified  with  Hatfield 
Chase,  north-east  of  Doncaster.  "  Robert  Talbot,  the  sixteenth- 
century  annotator  of  MS.  C  of  the  Chronick^^  says  Plummer, 
"tells  us  'it  was  in  ye  forest  off  Shyrwode,'  i.e.  Sherwood,  which 
is  now  to  the  south  of  Doncaster,  but  may  then  have  extended 
farther  north.  Nennius  and  the  Ann.  Camb.  both  call  this  battle 
the  battle  of  Meicen."^  y^dwin,  having  died  when  fighting 
against  the  heathen,  was  deemed  a  martyr  (martyrio  coro?iatus).^ 
His  day  in  the  calendar  is  October  4th,  a  mistake,  says  Plummer, 
probably  due  to  the  omission  of  id  (for  ^^  idiium  "). 

5  .  .  .  26. — The  same  work  says  that  Oswald's  mother, 
Acha,  was  a  Christian,  which  is  very  probable,  since  she  was 
a  sister  of  St.  ^dwin,  and  suggests  that  he  was  first  taught 
Christianity  by  her,  and  only  completed  his  education  in 
Ireland,  whither  she  went  with  her  sons.  There  Oswald  also 
learnt  the  Irish  language,  ^^  lingua fn  Scottorutyi  perfede  didicit  et 
fidei  documenta  quae  prius  a  matre  Christiana  perceperat  gentis 
alius  credulae  eruditio?ie  solidavit,  et  lavaero  sacri  baptismatis 
purificatus."  ^ 

6  .  .  .  29. — Tighernach  speaks  of  Eanfrid  having  fought  a 
regular  battle,  and  says  that  afterwards  he  was  beheaded  :  "  Cath 
la  \_praelium  per\  Cathlon  et  A?ifraith  qui  decollatus  est.'''' ^ 

19  .  .  .  4. — Not  only  were  the  principal  ecclesiastics  for 
the  most  part  of  good  family,  but  in  the  Scotic  monasteries 
the  abbatial  succession  was  generally  confined  to  the  clan  of  the 
founder.^ 

25  .  .  .  25. — Todd,  in  his  Life  of  St.  Patrick,  tells  us  the 
Bishop  of  Aquino  was  under  the  Abbot  of  Monte  Casino.  A 
bishop  also  resided  in  a  monastery  at  Sinai. ^ 

40  .  .  .  25. — Reginald  of  Durham  in  his  Vit.  Oswaldi  calls 
special  attention  to  this  breach  of  Catholic  usage. '^  He  spells 
the  name  of  the  princess  Kyneburga.^ 

48  .  .  .  25. — ^Ifwine  is  styled  rex  by  /Eddi,  and  it  is 
possible  he  reigned  as  sub-king  of  Deira  under  his  brother 
Ecgfrith. 

50  .  .  .  24. — In  the  Vit.  Oswaldi  Maserfield  is  put  at 
Shrewsbury  (Scropesbyri).^ 

^  Plummer,  Bede^  ii.  115  and  116.         ^  Vit.  Oswaldi,  S.  of  D.,  i.  341. 

^  lb.  i.  341.  *  Plummer,  Bede,  ii.  1 21. 

^  See  Stewart's  Preface  to  the  Book  of  Deor. 

«  Bright,  157.  7  Op.  cit.  342  and  343. 

^  r  -> 


*  lb.  349.  9  lb 


3  50  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

54  .  .  .  7. — A  Norman  writer  quoted  by  Camden,  Britt.  iii. 
234,  says : 

"  Quis  fuit  Alcides  {Hercules')?   quis  Caesar  Julius?  aut  quis 
Magnus  Alexander?     Alcide  se  superasse. 
Fertur ;  Alexattder  mundtim,  sed  Julius  hoslem, 
Se  sitnicl  Osualdus  et  niundum  vicit  et  kostem." 

55  .  .  .  II. — In  Adamnan's  Life  of  St.  Columba  Oswy  is 
called  ^^  regnator  Saxonicusy^ 

55  .  .  .  16. — In  the  Lije  oj St.  Oswald  2i  miracle  is  reported  of 
the  king  as  occurring  before  his  death.  We  are  told  that  he  was 
attacked  by  a  dire  disease,  apparently  the  plague,  and  when  he 
was  lying  very  ill  three  angels  visited  him  as  a  deputation  from 
the  choir  in  heaven,  who  told  him  that  Christ  had  heard  his 
prayer  and  those  of  all  the  Anglian  people,  and  had  freed  him 
from  the  death  summons  {de  istius  cladis  peste  absoliitum  liber- 
avit).  Reginald  says  he  had  taken  this  account  from  a  very  old 
book  in  the  Anglian  tongue  which  he  had  translated  into  Latin. 2 

55  .  .  .  18. — Reginald,  in  fact,  calls  him  St.  ^dwin. 

58  .  .  .  24. — By  Alcred  he  means  Alchfrid,  son  of  Oswy, 
King  of  Northumbria. 

59  .  .  .  19. — The  remains  of  St.  Oswald  were  supposed  to  be 
specially  potent  in  curing  the  disease  which  had  nearly  killed 
him  when  king.  "TVaw  Jrigescentes  artus  pauperum  opibus  et 
mdumentis  rejovebat,  et  dolorum  uredine?n  tarn  in  pauperibus  quam 
in  divitiis  affluentibus  suam  Jore  reputabatj''^  In  the  Harleian 
MS.  of  the  Life  a  Durham  monk  of  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  adds  the  note,  "  Uredo  est  corruptio  veniens  a 
vento  virente^  qua  segetes  videntur  adustae  in  agro.^^  * 

60  .  .  .  I. — The  appearance  of  the  head,  the  hand,  and  arm 
of  St.  Oswald  are  described  in  great  minuteness  by  Reginald  in 
his  Life  of  the  saint  above  cited,  and  occupies  four  chapters, 
namely,  51,  52,  53,  and  54.^  The  details  are  worthy  of  a  pro- 
fessed anatomist,  and  he  deduces  the  nature  of  the  death-blow 
from  the  condition  of  the  bones  of  the  neck:  ^^  quod  ictus  gladii 
Jerientis  non  i?i  obliquOy  spiculatore  truculento  Jeriente  deviando, 
demerserit^  sed  magis  vibrantis  viribus  linealiter  in  directo  tramite 
secando  permeaveritJ^  ^ 

64  .  .  .  8. — Leland   says    "  the    Priory "   of    St.    Oswald   at 

^  Op.  cil.f  ed.  Fowler,  11.  2  j/^v.  Oswaldi,  348  and  349. 

^  Vif.  Oswaldi,  369.  ■*  lb.  note. 

'  ^b.  379-381.  ^  lb.  381. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  351 

Gloucester  stood  north-north-west  from  Gloucester  Abbey  upon 
"  Severne  ripe,"  i.e.  on  the  banks  of  the  Severn. ^ 

70  .  .  .  18. — Miss  Arnold- Forster  in  her  work  on  the  dedica- 
tions of  English  churches  adds  considerably  to  my  list  of  those 
connected  with  St.  Oswald.  She  says  that,  including  double 
dedications,  they  number  seventy-two,  and  gives  a  list.^ 

74...  14. — Oidilwald  is  the  Northumbrian  form  of  the 
Wessex  ^^thelwald. 

79  .  .  .  2. — Oswin's  thorpe  was,  according  to  Thoresby's  Leeds^ 
108,  the  royal  residence  in  Loidis. 

80  .  .  .  I. — On  this  place  see  the  note  in  vol.  i.  pp.  154-155. 
80  .  .  .  10. — A  ^^cotnes^^  was  one  of  the  bodyguard  or  comitatus 

of  the  prince,  and  it  was  an  especially  heinous  offence  for  such  a 
one  to  be  a  traitor. 

85  .  .  .  21. — According  to  Miss  Arnold-Forster,  the  only 
church  now  dedicated  to  St.  Oswyn  is  that  of  Wylam. 

94  .  .  .  8. — St.  Aidan's  establishment  at  Lindisfarne  was 
entirely  monastic,  and  there  were,  no  secular  clergy  there.  Thus, 
in  referring  to  him,  Bede  in  his  Vit.  Cuth.,  cap.  16,  says :  "  Vfide 
ab  illo  omnes  loci  ipsius  Antistites  usque  hodie  sic  episcopate  exerce?it 
officium^  ut  regente  ?no7iast€rium  Abbate,  quern  ipsi  eum  consilio  fra- 
trum  elegerintj  omnes  presbyteri,  diaconiy  cantores,  lectores,  ceterique 
gradus  ecclesiastici  monachicam  per  omnia  cum  ipso  Episcopo 
regulam  servent.'^ 

It  is  difficult  to  decide  exactly  between  Lindisfarne  and 
Fame  Island  in  regard  to  which  was  entitled  to  the  British  name 
Medcaut,  Irish  Medgoet  or  Inis  Melgoit,  as  Tighernach  calls  it. 
Nennius  says  distinctly,  "  Sanctus  Cudbertus  episcopus  obiit  in 
insula  Medcauf^^  Bede  says  he  died  in  "insula  Fame,"'*  but 
elsewhere  the  Irish  writers  seem  to  understand  Lindisfarne  by 
Medgoet. 

Miss  Arnold-Forster  reports  the  following  churches  in 
England  as  dedicated  to  St.  Aidan :  Bamburgh,  Benwell, 
Blackhill,  Boston,  Gateshead,  Hartlepool,  Harrington,  Leeds, 
Liverpool,  Newbiggin,  South  Shields,  Thorneyburn,  and  Walton- 
le-Dale.5 

Bishop  Forbes  in  the  Kalendars  of  Scottish  Saints  says  of  his 
memorials  in  Scotland  :  "The  churches  of  Cambusnethan  and  of 
Menmuir   were   dedicated   to   the   saint.      Near   to   the   latter 

^  Itin.,  ed.  L.  Smith,  ii.  62.  "^  Op.  cit.  iii.  433. 

3  M.H.B.,  76.  ^  H.E.,  iv.  29. 

^  Studies  in  Church  Dedications,  iii.  vii. 


3  5  2   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

church  is  St.  Iten's  Well,  celebrated  for  the  cure  of  asthma  and 
cutaneous  diseases.  In  the  immediate  vicinity  is  Gome's  Well, 
no  doubt  named  after  his  successor,  St.  Colman.  At  Fearn  is 
Aidan's  Well."  i 

94  .  .  .  28. — Prior  Wessington  says  that  King  Edmund  gave 
them  to  Glastonbury.2 

113  ..  .  23. — When  Fursey  arrived  in  East  Anglia,  Algeis, 
with  Corbican  and  his  servant  Rodalgus,  went  on  to  Corbei 
and  thence  to  Laon,  while  Foillan,  Ultan,  Goban,  Dicuil,  Etto, 
and  Madelgisilus  remained  behind  with  Fursey. 

In  adding  some  additional  notes  on  the  famous  "seer,"  I 
cannot  avoid  a  quotation  from  my  charming  friend  the  late  T. 
Hodgkin,  recalling  Dante,  another  great  seer :  "  Men  in  Florence 
said  when  they  saw  this  poet  pass,  '  That  man  has  been  in  hell.' " 

It  is  curious  what  a  fascination  the  Irish  hermits  then  exer- 
cised on  the  popular  imagination  on  this  side  of  the  Irish 
Channel.  Thus,  Bede  tells  us  he  had  seen  some  people  who 
had  been  bitten  by  serpents  and  were  cured  by  drinking  water 
into  which  scrapings  of  the  leaves  of  books  that  had  been  brought 
out  of  Ireland  had  been  put.^  Green  picturesquely  describes 
the  result  of  their  handiwork  as  "  creating  a  wild  tangled  growth 
of  asceticism  which  dissociated  piety  from  morality."  * 

114.  .  .  18. — This  castle  is  now  known  as  Burgh  Castle, 
where,  as  Miss  Stokes  says,  Sigfred  no  doubt  met  the  Bur- 
gundian  Bishop  Felix,  from  whom  he  doubtless  learnt  much 
about  France  and  the  Irish  missions  there. 

115  ..  .  10. — In  the  Lives  of  the  Irish  Saints,  edited  by  Lord 
Bute,  ex  codice  Salmanticensi,  we  are  told  that  St.  Fursey  while 
in  Ireland  ordained  three  brothers  as  priests,  namely,  Algeis, 
Etho,  and  Goban,  who  accompanied  him  to  England  and  after- 
wards went  to  France,  where  they  became  the  patron  saints  of 
the  towns — St.  Algise,  St.  Gobian,  and  Avesnes. 

My  old  friend  Miss  Margaret  Stokes  wrote  an  interesting 
account  of  the  existing  memorials  of  the  saint  in  Ireland. 
Besides  the  foundations  of  the  church  at  Inchiquin  are  the  ruins 
of  Fursey's  monastery.  It  is  now  called  Kill-arsagh,  formerly 
Killfursa.^  Near  it  is  a  weir  called  Colla  Fursa,  or  the  Weir  of 
Fursey.  (Of  this  she  gives  a  picture.)  Near  the  church  is  a  pillar 
stone  with  a  rude  cross  and  circle  incised  on  it,  which  is  said 

1  Op.  cit.  269.  2  M.H.B.,  203. 

3  Op.  cit.  ;  H.E.,  i.  ch.  i.  ^  Making  of  Englajid,  317. 

^  Miss  Stokes,  Three  Months  in  the  Forests  of  France^  136. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  353 

to  be  good  for  rheumatism.  The  "  townland  "  to  the  north-east 
is  still  named  after  Fursey's  father,  Fintan,  namely,  Ard  Fintan 
or  Caher  Fintan.  The  church  stands  in  a  large  burial-ground  on 
a  slight  eminence  with  the  trees  of  Ower  Park  behind  it  to  the 
north,  and  the  long  range  of  mountains  rising  over  Lough  Mask 
to  the  north-west.  "  There  are  some  later  inserted  windows,  but," 
says  Miss  Stokes,  "  we  could  find  nothing  to  prove  that  the  walls 
were  not  all  original  and  of  very  great  antiquity.  The  west 
doorway  is  a  good  example  of  the  primitive  Irish  style,  with 
horizontal  lintel  and  inclined  jambs.  The  lintel  is  of  rough 
calcareous  limestone  and  measures  3  feet  in  length  and  2  in 
width.  There  are  slit  windows  in  the  south  wall,  one  over  the 
other,  both  showing  a  very  wide  internal  splay.  At  the  east  end 
there  are  four  recesses  at  each  side  of  the  altar,  and  one  in  the 
north  and  another  in  the  south  wall.  A  round  arched  recess, 
now  falling  into  ruin,  beside  the  altar  is  another  feature  in  the 
north  wall.  This  was  once  probably  filled  by  a  tomb,  which 
has  now  disappeared. 

"  The  interior  of  the  church  proper,  not  including  the  western 
chamber,  is  55  feet  in  length  and  2o|  in  width  in  the  middle, 
but  narrows  gradually  towards  the  west  door ;  there  is,  in  fact, 
no  regularity  in  the  ground  plan,  nor  a  single  right  angle  in  the 
building.  This  is  due  to  the  irregularities  of  the  ground.  There 
is  neither  transept  nor  chancel,  and  only  a  western  chamber  or 
galilee.  It  is  19  feet  wide  and  9  feet  long,  and  is  enclosed 
by  a  door  in  a  line  with  the  west  door  of  the  church.  It  was, 
apparently,  a  two-storied  chamber,  thus  accounting  for  two  slit 
windows,  one  over  the  other,  in  the  south  wall.  Such  a  chamber 
exists  in  the  church  dedicated  to  the  four  beautiful  saints, 
Fursa,  Brendan,  Berchann,  and  Conall,  situated  at  Aranmore, 
and  we  know  St.  Fursa  visited  the  Aran  Islands  before  founding 
the  church  of  Killfursa.  Both  these  churches  are  built  with 
grouting  and  with  undressed  stone."  Miss  Stokes  suggests  that 
this  singular  western  addition  was  allotted  to  penitents,  and  also 
used  as  a  place  in  which  to  deposit  bodies  previous  to  their 
internment,  while  the  upper  room  became  a  muniment  room.^ 

Besides  this  large  church,  which  was  doubtless  attached  to 
Fursey's  monastery,  there  is  an  earlier  and  smaller  building  at 
Cross,  in  Mayo,  which  was  probably  the  saint's  oratory  when  he 
was  living  a  solitary  life.  It  stands  near  the  village  of  Cross, 
two  miles  from  Cong.  The  greater  part  of  the  east  wall  and 
*  Miss  Stokes,  Three  Months  in  the  Forests  of  France,  141-142. 
VOL.  III. — 23 


3  5  4  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

the  window  in  the  south  wall  remain,  but  three  corbels  formerly 
there  have  disappeared,  while  a  carved  figure  mentioned  by  Sir 
Wm.  Wilde  is  now  in  a  stable  wall  of  a  deserted  house  close  by.^ 

Near  Dundalk  there  is  a  memento  of  the  saint  in  a  second 
church  called  Killfursa.^ 

Dr.  Graves,  the  Bishop  of  Limerick,  has  called  attention  to 
what  he  considers  the  remains  of  a  school  frequented  by  students 
in  a  group  of  ancient  cells  in  Corkaguiny,  in  Kerry,  where  he 
read  on  one  of  two  sculptured  stones  the  name  of  Finlog, 
probably  the  grandfather  of  St.  Fursey,  so  called,  and  on  the  other 
the  Anglo-Saxon  name  Eadfrith,  both  written  in  oghams.^ 

ii6  .  .  .  I. — St.  Fursey  is  said  to  have  landed  at  Mayoc, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Somme,  near  Le  Crotoy,  and  travelled 
through  Picardy,  where  a  plain  formerly  called  Fors-hem  pre- 
served his  name.  It  is  now  called  Frohens-le-Grand,  and  it  has 
a  chapel  called  La  Chapelle  de  St.  Fursey,  and  his  holy  well.* 
After  some  adventures  he  reached  Peronne,  where  he  was 
hospitably  received  by  Erchenwald,  and  eventually  settled  among 
the  secluded  meadows  of  Lagny  on  the  Marne,  near  Chelles, 
where  Queen  Bathildis  had  built  her  famous  nunnery  and  where 
Fursey  himself  built  a  monastery  with  three  attached  chapels, 
one  of  which  was  called  after  him.^  Bishop  Eligius,  who  trans- 
lated his  remains  to  a  new  shrine,  was  the  famous  goldsmith 
bishop  generally  known  as  St.  Eloi,  of  whom  I  have  said  a  good 
deal  later  on  in  the  text. 

1 16  .  .  .  24 — The  name  is  really  "  Le  mont  des  Cignes,"  mean- 
ing Hill  of  the  Swans.  In  the  life  of  St.  Cuanna  (Colgan  A.  A. 
MSS.,  Feb.  4th)  is  a  story  in  which  we  read  that  while  that  saint 
was  once  presiding  over  a  conference  of  1746  holy  men  in  Fursey's 
old  foundation  at  Lough  Corrib,  a  bell  was  seen  in  the  air  moving 
like  a  bird,  and  suspended  over  their  heads.  To  the  surprised 
assembly  Cuanna  explained  that  the  bell  belonged  to  St.  Fursey, 
who  had  sent  it  as  a  token  that  he  longed  to  be  with  them.*^ 

The  Abbey  of  St.  Fursey  at  Peronne,  founded  by  the  saint, 
kept  up  its  ties  for  a  long  time  with  Ireland.  In  the  Ajinals  of 
the  Four  Masters  J  nn^Q-r  the  year  774  we  read:  "  Moinan,  son 

^  Miss  Stokes,  Three  Months  in  the  Forests  of  France,  145. 
2/^.153. 

'  Trans.  Roy,  Irish  Acad.,  xxvii.  31,  and  iii.  part  ii.  ;  Miss  Stokes,  op. 
cit.  152. 

^  Miss  Stokes,  op.  cit.  104-105,  175,  and  177. 

^  lb.  102,  note  109-110.  ^  lb.  102,  note. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  355 

of  Connar,  Abbot  of  Cathair  Fursa  in  France,  died."  One  of  the 
gates  of  Peronne  is  still  called  Porte  de  Br^tagne ;  the  town 
also  has  its  Faubourg  Bretagne.  It  is  noteworthy  that  in  its 
church  was  buried,  on  the  7th  of  October  929,  one  of  the  most 
forlorn  of  rulers,  namely,  Charles,  styled  the  Simple,  King  of 
France.  This  old  church  was  entirely  destroyed  at  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  the  only  things  preserved  were  the  relics  of  the  saint, 
which  remain  there  and  are  labelled  ^' Sacrae  Reliquiae  Sand. 
Fursaci  Urbis  Peronensis  Fatron.^^  ^ 

At  Lagny  there  are  still  the  remains  of  the  abbey  founded  by 
the  "  Mayor  of  the  Palace,"  Erchenw^ald,  in  honour  of  the  saint, 
and  the  ruins  of  the  church  still  preserve  his  name.  It  was  long 
presided  over  by  Irish  abbots  and  became  a  nursery  of  saints. ^ 

"The  memory  of  St.  Fursey,"  says  Miss  Stokes,  "is  still 
honoured  in  the  Irish  Calendar  of  Q^ngus,  the  Martyrology  of 
Donegal,  the  Martyrology  of  Tallaght,  the  Martyrology  of  Marianus 
O'Gorman,  the  Martyrology  of  Christ  Church,  Dublin,  in  the 
Annals  of  Ulster  and  the  Chronica  Scotoru7H,  and  in  the  Kalendars 
of  Scottish  Sai?ttsy  ^ 

In  the  Martyrology  of  Holy  Trinity,  Dublin,  it  is  said  of  St. 
Fursey  that  his  office  was  celebrated  with  nine  lessons,  and  he  is 
inscribed  in  the  Carlovingian  litanies  under  seven  different  dates. 

The  famous  banner  of  Peronne,  which  was  sadly  damaged  at 
the  Revolution,  is  still  preserved  in  the  Hotel  de  Ville  of  the 
town.  On  it  St.  Fursey  is  represented  in  the  clouds  sustaining 
the  citizens  in  the  famous  siege  of  1536.  The  chasuble  and 
stole  of  the  saint  were  formerly  preserved  at  Lagny. 

When  he  left  Suffolk  for  France,  Fursey,  we  are  told,  be- 
queathed his  girdle  to  his  monks,  who  are  said  to  have  folded 
some  locks  of  his  hair  in  it  and  then  covered  it  with  gold  and 
precious  stones  and  applied  it  for  the  cure  of  the  sick.^ 

His  attributes  in  art  are  a  crown  and  sceptre ;  at  his  feet  an 
angel,  two  oxen  crouching,  and  occasionally  a  springing  fountain.^ 

In  a  work  by  Guilhermy  on  the  inscriptions  of  France  from 
the  fifth  to  the  eighteenth  centuries  there  is  a  description  of  an 
inscription  on  the  great  bell  at  St.  Peter's  of  Lagny,  with  which 
St.  Fursey  had  to  do.  It  reads  :  "y^/  ete  benite  et  nommee  Furcy." 
It  is  dated  1669;  while  among  the  relics  recorded  as  being  in 
the  church  in  1018  was  a  bone  of  St.  Eloi,  who  was  styled  on  its 
label,  "  Disciple  de  St.  Furcy."     The  fountain  in  the  middle  of 

^  Miss  Stokes,  op.  cit.  192.  -  lb.  202.  '  lb.  259  and  260. 

*  lb.  263.  5  ji^  104.  6  y^^  264. 


3  56  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

the  town  is  also  said  to  have  been  the  original  well  of 
St.  Fursey.i 

121  ..  .  2. — It  was  reported  that  he  was  buried  in  the 
Priory,  the  ivy-covered  remainder  of  the  successor  of  which 
remains  at  Blyborough.  His  tomb  is  still  pointed  out  on  the 
north  side  of  the  neighbouring  church  at  Broad.^ 

121  ..  .  4. — I  am  not  now  so  sure  about  this,  which  is 
the  generally  received  opinion.  Bede  nowhere  tells  us  who 
Heresuitha  married.  He  merely  says  she  was  the  mother  of 
Aldwulf  and  does  not  say  who  was  his  father.  Florence  of 
Worcester  is  our  earliest  authority  for  making  him  the  son  of 
JEthelhere,  and  he  wrote  in  11 16.  It  is  more  likely  that  he  was 
the  son  of  Anna  (for  ^thelhere  was  a  pagan),  and,  further,  that 
Heresuitha  was,  in  fact,  Anna's  wife. 

121  ..  .  7. — The  ^(^^/^  ^^/y  says  that  Anna  was  first  buried 
at  Bhdeburge  (i.e.  Blythburgh,  in  Suffolk),  and  then  removed  to 
Bedrichsworda  (i.e.  Bury  St.  Edmunds),  adding,  ''''  ubi  et  Jurmanus 
filius^  ad  Bedrichsiwrdam  tra7islatusP^ 

Plummer  says  Wihtred's  accession  must  be  put  in  October,  690. 

123  ..  .  I. — It  has  been  suggested  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum^ 
Feb.  2,  180,  that  ^thelfleda  was  the  natural  daughter  of  Oswy 
and  full  sister  of  King  Aldfred. 

128  ..  .  27. — According  to  Nennius  the  treasure  of  Judeu 
was  exacted  by  Penda  from  Oswy,  who  distributed  it  among  the 
British  princes,  his  allies. 

132  .  .  .  I. — Dr.  Bright  says  of  Penda:  "There  is  a  sort  of 
weird  grandeur  in  the  career  of  one  who  in  his  time  slew  five 
kings  and  might  seem  as  irresistible  as  fate."* 

134  ..  .  28. — It  is  well  to  remember  that  the  first  five 
bishops  of  Mercia  were  Celtic  monks. 

137  .  .  .  26. — Miss  Arnold-Forster  enumerates  sixty-six 
churches  dedicated  to  St.  Botulf,  or  St.  Botolph  as  he  is  some- 
times called,  of  which  four  are  in  the  city  of  London.  It  was 
reported  of  him  ^  that  when  he  asked  the  King  to  give  him  land 
he  begged  that  it  might  be  "  waste  "  and  not  be  taken  from  his 
royal  demesne.  He  is  named  among  the  presbyter  abbots  in 
the  Liber  Vitae  of  Durham. 

^  Miss  Stokes,  op.  cit.  203. 

2  See   St.  Edmund^   King  and  Martyr^  by  the    Rev.  J.   P.  Mackiriley, 
O.S.B.,  16. 

3  M.H.B.,  190,  note  k.  **  Op.  cit.  145. 
^  See  Mabillon,  ill.  5,  and  William  of  Malmesbury,  133. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  357 

138  ..  .  27. — Apropos  of  this,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
what  a  part  the  monks  and  hermits  had  in  reclaiming  the 
wilder  districts  of  Northumbria,  which  civilisation  and  social 
life  had  as  yet  not  visited  at  all.  Green  poetically  describes  the 
process  in  a  single  paragraph  :  "  It  broke  the  dreary  line  of 
the  northern  coast  with  settlements  which  proved  forerunners 
of  some  of  our  busiest  ports.  It  broke  the  silence  of  waste 
and  moor  by  houses  like  those  of  Ripon  and  Laestingham, 
and  it  set  agricultural  colonies  in  the  depths  of  vast  wood- 
lands, as  at  Evesham  or  Malmesbury,  while  by  a  chain  of 
religious  houses  it  made  its  way  step  by  step  into  the  heart 
of  the  fens."  ^ 

138  ..  .  6. — Green  says  the  kings  of  Essex  probably  dis- 
carded their  Christianity  and  their  dependence  on  Kent  at  the 
same  time.^ 

141  .  .  .  12. — Cedde  and  Ceadda  have  been  often  con- 
founded in  practice.  Against  this  Fuller  quaintly  protests  in  the 
phrase,  "  Though  it  be  pleasant  for  brothers  to  live  together  in 
unity,  yet  it  is  not  fit  that  by  error  they  should  be  jumbled 
together  in  confusion." 

161  .  .  .  30. — Cudda  occurs  as  the  second  name  in  the  list 
of  abbots  in  the  Liber  Vitae. 

163  ..  .  TO. — Green  reminds  us  that  Benedict  was  then 
twenty-five  and  Wilfrid  seventeen. 

185  ..  .  28. — Stevenson  points  out  that  a  pressing  reason 
for  holding  the  Synod  at  this  time,  rather  than  a  year  later,  was 
that  the  next  year,  665,  there  would  have  been  a  whole  week 
between  the  Roman  and  the  Celtic  Easter  days. 

186  ..  .  16. — The  presence  of  Bishop  Cedde  at  the  Synod 
of  Whitby  does  not  contravene  this  statement,  since  he  was 
probably  there  as  Abbot  of  Laestingham  in  Yorkshire. 

187  .  .  .  26. — ^ddi,  with  his  usual  inaccuracy,  calls  Colman 
"  Eboracae  civitatis  episcopus  metropolitanus.^^  Perhaps  this  was  a 
suggestion  of  Wilfrid's. 

188  ..  .  25. — It  is  strange  that  Agilberht,  who  had  been  a 
bishop  in  Wessex  for  some  time,  should  not  have  been  able  to 
expound  the  orthodox  view  of  Easter  himself,  for  his  name  shows 
he  belonged  to  a  cognate  race  to  the  English. 

196  ..  .  4. — It   is  curious  that  Bede's  two  chapters   deal- 
ing with  this  most  important  Synod  of  Whitby  are  left  out  in 
the    Anglo-Saxon    version,    nor    are    they    mentioned    in    the 
^  Making  of  England,  347.  "^  lb,  299. 


3  5  8   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Capitula.     The  Anglo-Saxon  Chrofiicle  also  entirely  ignores  the 
synod. 

204  .  .  .  27. — Among  the  presbyters  mentioned  in  \k\^  Liber 
Vitae  of  Durham  is  a  certain  Tydi,  by  whom  this  Tuda  is 
probably  meant.  Miss  Arnold-Forster  mentions  a  St.  Tudy 
among  the  dedications  of  English  churches. 

213  ..  .  3. — This  shows  that  the  West  Welsh  of  Cornwall 
and  Devon  were  much  more  friendly  to  the  English  than  the 
Welsh  of  Wales. 

222  .  .  .   24. — Alchfrid    is    named   in   the   Liber   Vitae  im- 
mediately after  his  brother  King  Ecgfrid,  and  in  it  is  followed 
by  another  brother  ^Ifwine,  who  was  killed  in  a  battle  in  Mercia. 
225  .  .  .   18. — Bede  was,  like  other  historians,  by  no  means 
free  from  mistakes.     He  was,  in  fact,  human. 

306  .  .  .  18. — The  actual  day  of  Theodore's  arrival  was 
27th  May,  which  in  669  was  a  Sunday.^  It  was  the  anniversary 
of  the  day  on  which  he  had  set  out.^ 

323  ..  .  9. — It  has  been  generally  supposed  that  Agilberht 
on  leaving  Wessex  went  direct  to  Northumbria.  This  appears 
unlikely.  He  would  seem  rather  to  have  first  gone  abroad,  and 
probably  went  to  Rome.  When  he  presently  attended  the  Synod 
of  Whitby  he  probably  did  so  as  a  representative  of  the  Pope, 
and  it  is  very  likely  that  he  was  attended  by  Agatho  as  his 
assessor.  As  I  have  argued,  this  Agatho  seems  according  to  all 
probability  to  have  been  the  person  of  the  same  name  who 
presently  became  Pope.  After  the  Synod  Agilberht  returned  to 
France  and  became  Bishop  of  Paris,  and  was  accused  of  being 
the  partisan  and  abettor  of  the  worst  acts  of  Ebroin,  the  major- 
domo,  yet,  says  Plummer,  he  ranks  as  a  saint.^ 

329  ..  .  20. — The  Hecanas  are  a  somewhat  ambiguous 
people.  Their  territory  was  probably  coincident  with  the 
county  of  Hereford.  Florence  of  Worcester  identifies  them 
with  the  Magesaetas.*  Kemble  treats  the  latter  as  a  section  of 
the  Hecanas.^ 

334  .  .  .  2. — Hugo  Candidus,  the  historian  of  the  Abbey 
of  Peterborough,  says  that  Saxwulf,  having  founded  several 
monasteries,  left  the  parent  house  in  the  care  of  a  monk  called 
Cuthbald.     Cuthbald   had  founded  a  monastery  with  hermits' 

1  Plummer,  Bede,  ii.  205.  ^  Op.  cit.  ;  H.E.,  iv.  ch.  i. 

3  Bede,  ii.  203.  ^M.H.B.,  621. 

^  Hist,   of  the  Saxons,    i.  80,  150;    Stubbs's  Constitutional  History   of 
England,  i.  198 ;  Bright,  207. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  359 

cells  {cum  heremiticis  cellulis)  at  a  place  called  Ancarig,  afterwards 
Thorney,  in  Cambridgeshire.^ 

337  .  .  .  17. — Plummer  argues  that  Ecgfrid  came  to  the 
throne  in  February  671,  and  not  in  670,  as  has  been  thought. ^ 

355  .  .  .  24. — It  will  be  remembered  that  Theodore  him- 
self did  not  adopt  this  argument,  but  bases  his  objection  to 
St.  Chad's  previous  consecration  on  some  fault  in  the  form  of 
consecration. 

357  ..  .  18. — Miss  Arnold-Forster  enumerates  forty-five 
churches  dedicated  to  him.^  She  also  mentions  three  parishes 
called  after  him,  namely,  St.  Chad,  Chadkirk,  and  Chadwell 
Heath.  One  of  the  townships  in  Rochdale  parish  in  Lancashire 
is  called  Chadwick. 

361  ..  .  22. — In  enumerating  the  virtues  of  St.  Chad,  Bede 
mentions  one  which  I  have  omitted  by  mistake,  thinking  that 
^^ castitas"  and  ^^ co?iti?ientia  "  were  a  duplication  of  the  same  idea, 
but,  as  Mr.  Plummer  points  out,  ^^castitas^^  or  ^Wastus^^  was  used 
by  Bede  as  meaning  not  chastity  but  purity  from  error,  that  is, 
orthodoxy.^ 

364  .  .  .  6. — Even  ^ddi,  who  was  an  almost  unscrupulous 
partisan  of  Wilfrid,  speaks  of  St.  Chad,  whom  he  deems  a  usurper, 
as  '•''  servu7n  Dei  religiosissi?nu?n  et  admirabile?n  doctore?n"  ^ 

365  .  .  .  23. — There  has  been  much  exaggeration  about  the 
schools  supposed  to  have  been  introduced  by  Augustine  and  his 
monks.  We  have  no  right  to  suppose  that  they  had  any  other 
ideals  than  those  of  their  master,  Gregory,  and  he,  we  know, 
despised  secular  learning  and  entirely  disapproved  of  the  clergy 
teaching  it.  A  notable  example  of  his  views  on  this  subject  is 
embodied  in  his  very  querulous  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Vienne.^ 
Perhaps  a  better  proof  of  the  same  prejudice  is  to  be  found  in 
the  astounding  fact,  as  I  have  pointed  out  in  his  Life,  that  with 
all  his  opportunities  the  great  Pope  should  never  have  taken 
the  trouble  to  learn  Greek,  in  which  the  best  thought  of  the  Old 
World  was  enshrined,  and  in  which  nearly  all  the  theology  of  the 
earlier  centuries  of  the  Church  was  written. 

We  may  be  sure  that  his  influence  in  these  matters,  at  all 
events  in  Italy,  was  deplorable  and  widespread,  and  that  his 
monks  from  St.  Andrew's  Monastery  were  deeply  imbued  with  his 
retrograde  views.     We  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  they  were 

^  Op.  cit.  292  and  notes.  ^  Op.  cit.  ii.  358. 

^  Op.  cit.  iii.  345,  *  Bede,  ii.  199. 

•''  Ch.  14.  ^  See  Howorth,  Gregory  the  Greats  177. 


36o  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

in  any  sense  learned  men.  All  that  the  Pope  demanded  from 
his  pupils  and  protdg^s  was  sufficient  learning  for  them  to  be 
able  to  read  the  Scriptures,  the  service-books,  and  the  lives  of 
saints,  and  to  explain  the  elementary  dogmas  of  the  Christian 
faith ;  and,  secondly,  to  be  able  to  chant  the  psalter.  We  do 
not  read  anywhere  of  his  patronage  of  libraries  and  schools, 
except  choir  schools.  And  we  may  be  sure  that  his  missionaries 
to  England  were  in  these  matters  even  less  enlightened  than 
their  master.  Augustine's  interrogatories  to  the  Pope  are  a 
good  proof  of  it.  The  only  teaching  traditionally  associated 
with  them  and  their  scholars  at  Canterbury,  Dunwich,  and 
York  was  that  which  was  preparatory  to  a  clerical  life,  and  the 
schools  they  alone  founded,  so  far  as  the  evidence  goes,  were 
seminary  schools,  and  schools  for  teaching  choir-boys  and  men. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  at  this  time  boys  who  were  to  have 
lay  careers  were  ever  taught  in  these  schools.  We  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  Roman  monks  in  England,  until  a  later 
time,  could  communicate  with  their  scholars  without  interpreters. 
They  had  no  other  language  than  Latin,  and  they  probably 
despised  the  vernacular.  It  was  very  different  with  the  Irish 
missionaries,  who  presently  lighted  a  great  lamp  in  Northumbria, 
and  who  came  from  a  country  then  all  aflame  with  zeal  for 
learning  as  well  as  religion.  It  would  require  a  generation 
before  English  boys  could,  under  these  conditions,  be  adequately 
provided  with  teachers,  and  this  perhaps  accounts  for  no 
Englishman  having  become  an  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  for  a 
whole  century. 

It  was  not  Augustine,  but  Wilfrid,  Benedict  Biscop,  and 
Ceolfrid  who  first  introduced  the  theories  and  discipline  of 
the  Benedictine  Order  into  England,  who,  first  among  the 
champions  of  the  Roman  See,  introduced  letters  and  culture,  in 
a  real  sense,  into  England,  and  it  was  still  later  that  Theodore 
and  Hadrian  introduced  true  learning.  The  inspiration  and 
training  of  the  two  latter  was  not  Itahan,  where  the  arts  and 
humanities  were  well-nigh  dead.  One  came  from  Asia  Minor 
and  the  other  from  Africa,  where  the  influence  of  Gregory  had 
not  operated  to  blight  all  yearning  for  knowledge  and  culture  in 
favour  of  mere  pietism.  Their  theories  were  the  antipodes  of 
those  of  the  author  of  the  Dialogues.  They  came  well  endowed 
with  the  finest  instrument  available  for  producing  learned  men, 
namely,  the  Greek  language,  which  opened  the  gateway  to  the 
best  thought  mankind  had  hitherto  garnered,  and  they  founded 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  361 

a  most  notable  school  of  learning  in  England  which  was  for  a 
while  unmatched  elsewhere. 

Their  task  was  a  hard  one,  for  the  work  had  virtually  to  be 
started  from  the  beginning.  In  France  and  Spain  the  old 
Roman  tradition,  although  sadly  shattered,  had  gone  on 
continuously,  and  the  old  Roman  city  schools  had  gone  on 
without  a  real  break.  The  one  thing  which  had  disappeared,  as 
it  had  gone  in  Italy  and  also  in  Spain,  was  a  knowledge  of  Greek, 
otherwise  the  evidence  goes  to  show  that  the  teaching  there  was  at 
this  time  little  changed  from  that  of  the  later  Imperial  time.  In 
England  this  was  entirely  different.  There  was  possibly  a  certain 
trace  of  Roman  tradition  in  the  municipal  and  administrative 
methods  employed  here,  but  this  did  not  extend  to  schools. 

383  .  .  .  29. — Florence  says:  "Wigornia  during  the  time 
when  the  Britons  and  Romans  reigned  in  Britain  was  and  still  is 
the  famous  metropolis  of  all  Hwiccia  and  Magesetania.  .  .  . 
It  was  now  {i.e.  when  the  Bishopric  of  Wigornia  was  founded) 
decked  (decorata)  with  high  walls  and  fortifications  {7?iuris  et 
moenibus)  and  was  much  fairer  and  more  sublime  {clarior  atque 
sublimior)  than  in  his  day."  ^ 

VOLUME   II 

26  .  .  .  26. — Somner  identified  Cloveshoe  with  Rochester.^ 
Although  it  was  especially  fixed  as  the  meeting-place  of  synods, 
we  do  not  find  that  Theodore's  two  synods  met  there,  unless 
Herutford  was  deemed  to  be  virtually  the  same  place. 

29  .  .  .  19. — It  is  well  to  note  the  exact  words  used  : 
^^  Nonum  capit2dum  i7i  com??iune  tractatiim  est.  Ut plures  episcopi, 
crescente  numero  fide  Hum  augerentur ;  sed  de  hac  re  ad  p^aesens 
stluimus."  ^ 

31  .  .  .  28.  —  Coinwalch's  alleged  brother,  Edelwine,  or 
Ethelwine,  was  venerated  at  Athelney.  As  Plummer  says,  he  was 
probably  a  myth  created  by  an  attempt  to  explain  that  name  as 
-^Gelwine's,  or  Ethelwine's,  island.* 

32  .  .  .  21. — The  Annales  Lindisfarnenses  et  Cantiiarienses 
give  the  exact  date  of  King  Ecgberht's  death,  namely,  "iv. 
Non  Jul.,"  i.e.  4th  July.^ 

33  .  .  .  I. — The  Bishop  of  Lichfield,  called  Wynfrid  by 
Bede,  is  called  Wulfred  in  one  MS.  of  ^Eddi.^ 

1  M.H.B.,  622.  2  7^   216.  3  sgjg^  iv.  ch.  5. 

^  William  of  Malmesbury,  190;  Plummer,  Bede,  ii.  143. 
^  See  Pertz,  iv.  2.  ^  Ch.  25. 


362  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

33  .  .  .  25. — Bede  does  not  mention  Wynfrid's  journey 
abroad.     There  is  some  difficulty  about  his  chronology.^ 

35  .  .  .  20. — His  wife  was  Eormengilda,  daughter  of  King 
Earconberht  of  Kent.^ 

36  . .  .  21. — Montalembert  compares  St.  Etheldrytha's  conduct 
to  that  of  St.  Radegunda  toward  King  Chlothaire,  who  found  he 
had  married  a  nun  and  not  a  queen  :  "  Dicebat  se  habere  jugalem 
mo?iacham,  non  regi?tam.^' 

37  .  .  .  13. — Wilfrid's  conduct  in  this  matter  apparently  had 
the  countenance  of  Bede.^  It  was  entirely  contrary  to  the  teaching 
of  St.  Columba,  who  forbade  a  wife  to  go  into  a  monastery,  quoting 
Rom.  vii.  2  and  Matt.  xix.  6^  St.  Gregory  was  very  emphatic  on 
the  subject.  He  declared  that  a  dissolution  of  marriage,  religionis 
causa,  though  allowed  by  the  human  law,  was  forbidden  by  the 
Divine,  quoting  the  same  passage  from  St.  Matthew.^ 

38  .  .  .  22. — She  was  possibly  the  princess  of  the  same  name 
who  had  previously  married  Merwald,  Prince  of  the  Hwiccas. 

53  .  .  .  21. — Montalembert  speaks  of  Bosa  very  unfairly  as 
"This  intruder  among  English  monks." ^  Bede  calls  him  ^^ Deo 
dilectus  et  sanctissimusP  ^ 

54  .  .  .  7. — It  is  most  noteworthy  in  view  of  later  controversies 
that  Theodore  consecrated  three  bishops  alone — "  inordinate  solus 
ordinavity  ^ 

58  .  .  .  12. — Deodato  was  Bishop  of  Toul  from  679  to  680. 

58  .  .  .  20. — Paul  the  Deacon  speaks  of  him  as  ^^  justiciae  tenax 
mitis  per  omfiia  et  suavis^  ^  He  had  once  been  on  the  point  of 
taking  shelter  in  Britain.  The  wife  of  his  son  Cunincpert  was  an 
Englishwoman.  Hodgkin  (vi.  305,  note)  says  :  "  Ecgberht,  King 
of  Kent  from  664-673,  had  a  sister  Eormengild  who  married 
the  King  of  Mercia.  In  the  family  of  his  uncle  Eormenred,  all 
the  daughters'  names  began  with  ^thel.  From  one  of  these 
families  might  well  spring  Eormelind  or  Hermelinda,"  of  whom 
Paul  the  Deacon  says  :  "  Cunincpert  rex  Hermelinda  ex  Saxonum 
A?iglorum  genere^  duxit  uxoramr  The  use  of  the  phrase  Saxonum 
Angloru7n  here  is  notable.  Cunincpert  was  visited  by  Caedwalla 
the  Wessex  king  on  his  journey  to  Rome.^^ 

70  .  .  .  17. — In  reporting  the  doings  of  the  Synod  at  Rome, 
Bede  incidentally  tells  us  what  was  the  theory  then  prevalent  as  to 

^  See  Plummer,  Bede^  ii.  216.  ^  Florence  of  Worcester,  M.H.B.,  635,  etc. 

'  iv.  19.     •♦See  Vit.  Ad.,  ii.    (i.  ^  Vide  Ep.  xl.  45  ;  Bright,  287,  note  2. 

^  iv.  31,  note.  "^  v,  20.  ^  ^ddi,  c\\.  24. 

*  Paul  Diac,  Lang.,  v.  33-37.  ^^  Hodgkin,  vi,  15. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  363 

the  position  of  the  bishops  at  such  synods  or  councils.  He  says 
that  when  Wilfrid  had  taken  his  seat  among  the  other  bishops 
he  was  called  upon  to  declare  his  faith  and  that  of  the  island  or 
province  whence  he  came.  When  he  and  his  brethren  had  been 
found  orthodox,  the  fact  was  recorded  among  the  Acts  of  the 
Synod.  The  orthodoxy  of  each  bishop  was  clearly  judged  there- 
fore by  the  opinion  of  the  majority,  and  would  be  conclusive  as 
to  his  right  to  vote  or  not.  It  was  easy  enough  to  secure 
unanimity  in  this  fashion. 

90  .  .  .  14. — The  bishop  who  waylaid  Wilfrid  in  France 
was,  according  to  Mabillon,  Waimar,  Duke  of  Champagne,  who 
was  made  Bishop  of  Troyes  by  Ebroin  to  reward  his  services 
against  St.  Leger.^ 

109  .  .  .  22. — On  the  other  hand,  Bede  in  his  Lives  of  the 
Abbots  calls  him  "  most  venerable  and  pious." 

112  ..  .  25. — Hodgkin  apostrophises  the  Andredes-wood  as 
"  that  dark  impenetrable  wood  which  yielded  in  later  ages  to 
the  axes  of  the  charcoal-burners  of  Essex  and  of  Kent." 

113  ..  .  27. — The  name  spelt  ^thelwalch  by  Bede  is  spelt 
^thelwald  elsewhere. 

121  .  .  .  7. — The  Abingdon  Chronicle  says  the  black  cross 
was  found  with  other  traces  of  British  Christianity  at  Sheoves- 
ham,  which  it  describes  as  ^^  civitas  fa?nosa  .  .  .  divities  p/ena" 
and  which  was  surrounded  by  broad  green  meadows.  Of  this 
cross  it  says  that  no  one  could  profane  it  by  perjury  without 
imperilling  his  life.^ 

133  ..  .  4. — If  we  are  to  believe  Wilfrid's  panegyrist  and 
biographer,  ^ddi,  Caedwalla  was  actually  invited  to  invade 
Sussex.  His  words:  '"'■Nam  sanctus  a?itistes  Christi  .  .  .  saepe 
anxiatuni  exulem  adjuvavit  .  .  .  usqueduvi  .  .  .  regniwi  adeptus 
est  .  .  .  Reg?ia?ite  Caedwalla^  Occidentaliu?n  Saxonum  regio?iis 
monarchiam  tenens  statim  .  .  .  Sanctu?n  Wilfridum  .  .  .  ad  se  .  .  . 
accersivit .  .  .  Venerabili  patre  veniente,  rex  Caedwalla  .  .  .  in 
omni  regus  suo  excelsum  co?isiliarium  max  illu?n  composuit.^'*'^ 

141  .  .  .  15. —  Stevenson  says  these  white  chrismal  robes  were 
worn  until  the  first  Sunday  after  Easter,  which  was  thence  known 
as  '^^  Domiftica  albis."^ 

156...  23. — After  "  sixteenth  "  add  "  and  seventeenth."  Bede 
seems  to  imply  that  he  himself  wrote  an  epitome  of  the  book.^ 

^  Montalembert,  iv.  270,  note.  ^  Op.  cit.  ii.  269. 

3  Op.  cit.  ch.  42.  *  Stevenson,  Bede,  499. 

^  See  V.  ch.  17,  adfinem. 


364  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

161  ..  .  27. — As  Montalembert  says,  there  are  no  traces 
of  the  Roman  or  Byzantine  law  in  Theodore's  Penite7itial.  It 
embodies  the  penal  code  of  the  Germans,  founded  on  the  principle 
that  requires  a  punishment  for  every  offence  or  a  compensation 
for  every  punishment.^  According  to  Godwin,  de  Frcesiililms, 
p.  41,  Theodore  brought  a  copy  of  Homer  with  him,  which  he 
continually  read,  and  which  was  much  admired  by  his  ecclesiastical 
descendants. 

t68  .  .  .  13. — When  the  tomb  of  Archbishop  Theodore  was 
opened  in  1091  remains  were  found  of  all  his  episcopal  ornaments 
and  also  of  his  pallium.  On  his  head  had  been  placed  a  monk's 
hood.2 

168  .  .  .  27. — It  is  also  notable  that  the  first  seven  Arch- 
bishops of  Canterbury  were  all  monks. 

197  .  .  .  34. — Montalembert  reminds  us  that  *'Oswy  took  his 
daughter  ^Ifleda  from  the  caresses  of  her  mother  to  entrust  her, 
not,  as  might  have  been  supposed,  to  his  sister,  the  Abbess 
^bba  of  Coldingham,  but  to  Hilda,  a  princess  of  a  rival  dynasty, 
who  nearly  ten  years  before  had  been  initiated  into  monastic  life 
by  Abbot  Aidan."  s 

201  ..  .  16. — Two  miles  nearer  Oxford  than  the  present 
Abingdon.* 

249  .  .  .  9. — Among  Wilfrid's  opponents  St.  Hilda  was 
prominent.  Malmesbury  says  of  them  :  "  illi  viri  quo  os  sanctis- 
simos  celebrat  antiquttas,  Theodorus,  Berhtwaldus^  Johannes^  Bosa 
necnon  et  Hilda  abbafissa,  digladiabili  odio  irnpetierunt  Wilfridum 
Deo  lit  ex  antediciis  probatur,  acceptissimum"  ^ 

Cuthberht,  a  typical  saint,  as  well  as  Abbot  Benedict  Biscop, 
rejected  the  claims  of  Wilfrid.  In  his  account  of  the  latter,  Bede 
speaks  in  warm  admiration  of  the  kings  who  expelled  him,  and 
never  disapproves  of  the  so-called  usurping  bishops.^ 

251  ..  .  6. — ^ddi's  phrase  in  regard  to  this  matter  is  plain. 
He  tells  us  Wilfrid  returned  from  exile  '■''cunifilio  suoproprio^  veniens 
de  Hrypis.^^  '^  In  another  chapter  (18)  he  speaks  of  another  boy 
who  was  called  Eadwald,  who  died  of  the  plague  at  Ripon  {in 
Dei  servitio  ad  Hrypis^  i.e.  in  Wilfrid's  own  monastery),  as  '''■filius 
episcopi^''  or  son  of  the  Bishop,  which  is  equally  plain. 

1  Op.  cit.  V.  208. 

^  Jocelyn,  Vit.  ;  vide  Smith's  Bede^  189  ;  Lingard,  ii.  49,  note. 

3  Op.  cit.  iv.  120.  *  Bright,  298,  note. 

^  William  of  Malmesbury,  Gesta  Pont.,  iii.  107. 

^  Plummer,  ii.  316.  '  Vide  ch.  59. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  365 

258  .  .  .  13. — Stevenson  suggests  that  Torthelm  was  prob- 
ably one  of  those  who,  as  Bede  testifies  (iii.  8),  had  gone  from 
Britain  to  Gaul  to  study  because  the  facilities  were  greater  there. 

258  .  .  .  15. — "  ^r(r/^/V^<:/w5 "  is  the  word  used  in  the  Anony- 
mous Hist,  of  the  Abbots  \  in  Bede's  work  on  the  abbots  they  are 
called  ^''  Cemetitariiy  The  word  is  translated  "handicraftsmen 
in  stone  "  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  version, 

272  ..  .  29. — The  English  glass-makers  were  not  long  in 
forgetting  the  lessons  they  had  learnt,  for  in  a  letter  of  Cuthberht, 
Abbot  of  Wearmouth,  written  to  Lullus,  the  Archbishop  of 
Mainz,  he  asked  him  to  send  him  some  artificers  who  could  make 
good  glass  vessels,  for  his  people  were  ignorant  of  the  art. 
"  Sialiquis  homo  in  tua  sitparrochia,  qui  vitreavasa  benepossitfacere, 
7?iihi  mittere  digneris.  Aiit^  si  fortasse  ultra  fijies  est  in  potestate 
cujusdarn  alterius,  sifie  tua  parrochia,  rogo  ut  frater?iitas  tua  illi 
suadeat,  ut  ad  nos  usque  perveniat,  quia  ejusdem  ignari  et  inopes 
sumus."  ^ 

273  .  .  .  10. — It  was  on  this  occasion  that  he  was  accompanied 
to  Italy  by  his  friend  Ceolfrid.  There  they  were  honourably 
received  by  Pope  Agatho,^  who,  as  we  have  seen,  had  himself 
probably  visited  England.  This  could  not  have  taken  place 
before  the  summer  of  678,  since  Agatho  was  not  consecrated  till 
June  or  July  of  that  year,  although  Florence  of  Worcester  gives 
the  date  as  676.     They  returned  to  England  in  679  or  680. 

275  .  .  .  18. — Bede  defended  the  use  of  pictures  against  the 
iconoclasts.  Thus,  in  his  homily  on  Solomon's  Temple,  he 
urges  that  if  the  serpent  was  raised  up  in  the  wilderness,  why 
should  not  Christ  on  His  cross  be  also  raised  up  ?  "  Admemoriajn 
fidelibus  depingendo  reduci^  vel  alia  ejus  7niracula  .  .  .  cic7n  horu?n 
aspectus  saepe  inultum  co7npU7ictionis  soleat  praestare  co7ituentibus, 
ut  eis  quoque^  qui  litteras  ignorant^  quasi  vivaTn  Do77iinicae  historiae 
pandere  lectio7ie7n.'"  His  conclusion  is  "  non  .  .  .  i77iagines  reru7n 
.  .  .  facere  sed  .  .  .  idolatriae  gratia  facere  .  .  .  esse  prohibitu 771  "^ 
And  he  speaks  of  the  artificers  among  the  people  of  God  as 
skilled  in  all  kinds  of  work  in  copper  (aeris),  iron,  gold,  and  silver, 
and  as  having  been  engaged  in  ornamenting  the  tabernacle. 
Similarly  we  find  Alcuin,  in  790,  asking  a  correspondent  to  send 
him  '' pig77ie7ita  77iulta  de  sulfure  bene  et  coloribus  ad picturas."  ^ 

277  ..  .  16. — This   name   is    derived   from  Gyruy,  a  marsh 

^  Dummler,  Epp.  Merov.  et  Karoling.  Aevi,  406. 

2  Bede,  Hist.  Abb.,  vi.  ^  Opp.,  viii.  336-37  ;  Plummer,  ii.  360. 

*  Mon,  Ale,  p.  170;  Plummer,  ib. 


366  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

(hence  the  Gyrvians  in  Cambridgeshire).  Here,  however,  says 
Dr.  Bright,  it  denoted  the  "  slake  "  or  smooth  bay  where  the 
King's  ships  were  wont  to  ride  at  anchor.  "  Wira  .  .  .  qui  .  .  . 
naves  serena  invecias,  aura  placidi  ostii  txcipit  gremio.^''^  It  was 
situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  rivers  Don  and  Tyne,  and  was 
afterwards  known  as  the  Port  of  King  Ecgfrid.^ 

277  ..  .  17. — There  is  a  contradiction  here  between  the 
anonymous  work  on  the  Abbots  and  Bede's  corresponding  pro- 
duction, caused  by  some  mistake.  The  former  says  there  were 
twenty-two  monks  at  Jarrow  when  it  was  founded,  while  the  earlier 
work  says  there  were  only  seventeen.  The  former  also  adds  that 
Ecgfrid  marked  out  the  spot  where  the  altar  was  to  be  placed.^ 

303  .  .  .  2. — Benedict  Biscop  also  warned  his  monks  against 
the  practice,  then  becoming  frequent,  of  appointing  men  as  abbots 
on  account  of  their  high  birth  rather  than  their  character. 

305  .  .  .  I. — The  translation  of  Eosterwyn  and  Sigfrid  and 
the  burial  of  Witmar  took  place  in  August  716. 

311  ..  .  18. — Nechtan  or  Naiton  was  the  son  of  Derili  and 
brother  of  Brude,  whom  he  succeeded  in  706.^  In  724  he  was 
tonsured,  probably  involuntarily,  and  in  726  was  imprisoned  by 
his  rival  Drust.  In  728  he  recovered  a  part  of  his  kingdom. 
In  729  he  was  badly  defeated  by  Angus,  King  of  the  Scots,  of 
Fortrenn,  and  died  in  732.     These  dates  are  from  Tighernach.^ 

316  ..  .  26. — The  Britons  of  Wales  did  not  conform  in  the 
matter  of  Easter  till  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  and  the 
controversy  lasted  among  them  till  the  ninth  century.^ 

319  .  .  .  23. — The  words  are  "^<?  Saxonia"  and  the  use  of  the 
name  is  singular,  since  Northumbria  was  so  typically  Anglian. 

321  ..  .  27. — This  is  a  mistake.  Instead  of  "rather  than" 
read  "although."  Alcuin  has  the  same  thought  in  addressing 
the  monks  at  Wearmouth :  '''' Patxibus  oboedite  vestris  .  .  . 
adolescentulos  bene  docete^  ut  habeatis  qui  super  sepulcra  vestra 
stare possint  et  intercedere  pro  animabus  vestris.'^  Mr.  Plummer 
thus  aptly  quotes  Tennyson's  lines  : — 

"I  go  to  plant  it  on  his  tomb, 
That  if  it  can  it  there  may  bloom, 
Or  dying,  there  at  least  may  die."  ^ 


^  Op.  cit.  365  ;  Malmesbury,  Gesta  Regum,  i.  3. 
2  Sym.  Durh.^  i.  p.  51.  ^  Plummer,  ii.  361. 

^  Tighernach,  sub  an.  ^  See  Plummer,  ii.  331. 

*  lb.  ii.  301.  '  Mon.  Ale,  p.  843.  ^  Plummer,  ii.  180. ^ 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  367 

321. — Ceolfrid  was  seventy-four  when  he  died,  and  must 
therefore  have  been  thirty-six  when  he  went  to  Rome. 

329  .  .  .  II. — Bede,  in  his  "Ages  of  the  World,"  calls  the 
Quinisext  Council  the  "  erratic  synod  which  Justinian  summoned 
at  Consta.n{inop\e"  (erraficae  suae  synodo  ^ua?n  .  .  .  fecerat)} 

350  .  .  .  25. — Dr.  Bright  suggests  that  these  letters  of  Sergius 
were  forged  in  order  to  magnify  the  archbishopric  in  connection 
with  Rome. 

360  .  .  .  10. — I  find  that  I  had  been  forestalled  in  this  view  by 
William  of  Malmesbury  in  his  Gesta  Regum.  Montalembert  also 
says  Beorhtwald  was  descended  from  the  dynasty  which  reigned 
in  Mercia,  and  was  the  first  of  the  reign  of  Odin  who  took  his 
place  among  the  successors  of  the  apostles. ^ 

374  .  .  .  10. — The  Anglo-Saxon  version  calls  him  Beard- 
sachna  Abbot. 

377  .  .  .  29. — Offa,  although  not  called  King  of  Essex  in 
the  text  of  Bede,  is  so  called  in  the  Capitula.  William  of 
Malmesbury,  who  probably  had  no  more  knowledge  than  we 
have,  says  he  reigned  for  a  short  time.  If  he  did  so  it  must 
have  been  a  little  before  709.  On  going  to  Rome  he  left  his 
wife  {reliquit  uxorem).^  On  his  arriving  there  he  was  tonsured, 
and  soon  after  died.  At  that  time  Constantine  was  Pope.^ 
The  fact  is  mentioned  in  the  Liber  Fo?itificalis  Mud^r  the  heading 
of  Pope  Constantine,  where  we  read:  ^^  Hujus  temporibus  duo 
reges  Saxoiium  ad  orationem  apostolorum  cum  aliis  pluribus 
venientes  sub  velocitate  sua7ti  vitam^  ut  obtabant  fi?iterunt"  ^  The 
entry  is  copied  by  Paul  the  Deacon.^ 

379  ...  14  and  15. — Here,  as  on  the  dedication-stone  of 
the  monastery  at  Jarrow,  the  foundation  of  the  abbey  is  attri- 
buted to  Ceolfrid,  ^^juvante  Benedicto."  Alcuin  in  one  of  his  letters 
counsels  the  brethren  in  his  monasteries  to  regularly  read  the 
rule  of  St.  Benedict,  as  well  as  to  have  it  expounded,  pointing 
to  the  fact  that  all  the  monks  did  not  know  Latin.  There  seems 
to  then  have  been  an  oratory  in  the  dormitory  at  Jarrow, ''  and 
Plummer  quotes  a  parallel  case  at  St.  Mary's  Hospital, 
Chichester.^ 

381  .  .  .  3. — ^thelbald  succeeded  to  the  throne  in  716, 
since    Bede    says     that    731     was    the    fifteenth    year    of    his 

^  Smith's  Bede,  31.  ^  Op.  cit.  iv.  310. 

3  Bede,  v.  19.  ^  lb. 

^  Op.  cit.  (ed.  Mommsen),  225.  ^  Hist.  Lang.,  vi.  28. 

'  Op.  cit.  17.  8  Op.  cit.  ii.  367. 


368   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

reign. ^      The    AftgIo-Saxo?t    Chro7iicle    {sub   an.    716)   says   he 
reigned  twelve  years.     He  was  buried  at  Repton. 

386  .  .  .  21. — Since  this  part  of  the  text  was  in  print,  I 
have  come  across  a  paper  by  Dean  Spence  of  Gloucester,  which 
is  buried  in  a  periodical,  now  no  more,  called  Good  JVords.^  In 
it  he  describes  the  rediscovery  of  Osric's  coffin.  It  was  found 
enclosed  in  a  fine  tomb  which  was  placed  on  the  right  of  the 
high  altar.  It  has  an  elaborate  canopy  covering  a  royal  effigy 
representing  an  old  man  with  a  flowing  beard  and  having  on  his 
hand  a  model  of  the  Abbey  of  Gloucester,  and  is  inscribed  with 
black  characters  partly  effaced,  but  corresponding  to  the  epitaph 
given  by  Leland,  except  that  it  is  dated  681.  The  tomb  was 
erected  by  the  last  Abbot  of  Gloucester  called  Maban,  and  is 
stamped  with  his  arms. 

It  was  opened  on  the  7th  of  January  1892.  On  removing 
two  panels  from  its  south  side  a  long  leaden  coffin  was  disclosed, 
the  upper  end  of  which  had  been  crushed.  Some  bones  and 
grey  dust  were  seen,  but  these  were  not  disturbed.  This 
was  a  pity,  I  think,  for  it  might  have,  and  probably  did,  contain 
some  objects  of  the  highest  interest  to  the  archaeologist,  and 
would  have  done  no  harm  to  the  Royal  dust.  Art  remains  of 
that  date  are  very  rare,  and  this  is  the  only  very  early  Royal 
coffin  which  remains  intact. 

408  .  .  .  17. — My  learned  friend,  the  late  C.  Elton,  in 
English  Origins^  379,  says:  "Great  numbers  of  Britons  seem  to 
have  taken  refuge  in  the  wild  fens." 

426  ..  .  24. — If  the  plague  which  broke  out  at  Barking, 
as  described  in  the  first  Appendix,  was  the  outbreak  of  664, 
it  will,  as  has  been  urged,  put  back  the  date  of  the  build- 
ing of  the  nunnery  to  an  earlier  date  than  has  been 
supposed. 

444  .  .  .  9. — The  fixing  of  the  date  of  its  foundation  depends 
upon  the  events  in  the  life  of  Boniface.  He  was  killed  in  755 
when  he  w^as  about  seventy-five  years  old.  This  puts  his  birth 
about  the  year  680. 

455  .  .  .  21. — His  biographer,  Faricius,  tells  us  that  Aldhelm 
could  write  and  speak  the  Greek  language  like  a  native  of 
Greece,  and  this  we  should  expect  from  a  scholar  and  a  disciple 
of  two  such  men  as  Theodore  and  Hadrian.  His  Latin  style  is 
overloaded  with  Greek  words  and  idioms.  Dr.  Bright  quotes 
doxa^  Sophia,  kata  among  these,  and  he  adds  a  curious  statement, 
1  Op.  cit.  V.  24.  2  j8g2,  pp.  388-395. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  369 

namely,  that  a  similar  Grrecising  affectation  characterises  the 
language  of  many  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  charters,  e.g.  kyrius^  archo?t, 
tawnate^  agie,  catascopiis,  etc.^ 

Faricius  says  again  that  he  excelled  all  Latin  scholars 
since  the  days  of  Virgil  (!!!).  It  would  seem,  in  fact,  that 
his  overloaded  and  turgid  style  rather  attracted  the  scholars  of 
the  twelfth  century,  for  William  of  Malmesbury  speaks  of  it  as 
combining  the  excellencies  of  English,  Greek,  and  Latin.  He 
speaks  of  its  pompositas,  by  which,  as  Mr.  Wild  man  says,  he 
does  not  mean  its  pomposity,  but  its  dignified  and  stately 
character,  a  description  approved  by  him.  "  Difficult,"  he  says, 
"as  it  sometimes  is  to  construe,  it  moves  with  a  magnificent 
swing,  like  the  march  of  a  battalion  of  the  Guards."  ^ 

Faricius  further  tells  us,  and  it  is  curious  if  true,  that  he 
knew  Hebrew  and  read  the  prophets,  the  psalms  of  David,  the 
works  of  Solomon,  and  the  law  of  Moses  in  that  tongue. 

King  Alfred  speaks  in  high  terms  of  his  poems  in  the 
vernacular,  which  he  puts  at  the  head  of  all  English  poetry. 
Alas  !  these  have  apparently  all  perished.  He  wrote  a  treatise 
on  metrical  rules  for  Latin  poetry,  and  was  also  a  proficient 
musician. 

In  regard  to  the  subjects  of  which  he  showed  some  know- 
ledge, we  may  mention  rhetoric,  of  which  he,  however,  had  only 
studied  the  tropes. 

There  is  no  proof  that  he  had  studied  dialectics,  although 
he  names  it  among  the  seven  Arts.  In  his  letter  to  H^eddi, 
Aldhelm  speaks  of  his  studies  in  law  and  in  calculation.  By 
law,  according  to  M.  Roger,  he  means  the  divine  law.  He 
quotes  a  passage,  from  his  work  in  praise  of  Virgins,  where  he 
speaks  of  the  Arcana  Iegu?n  as  equivalent  to  the  laws  of  Moses, 
thus  following  the  example  of  Isidore.  On  the  other  hand,  as 
Lingard  says,  Bede,  a  generation  later,  in  his  Chronicle,  speaks 
of  the  Code  of  Justinian  as  well  known  to  his  countrymen, ^ 
and  M.  Roger  reminds  us  that  probably  in  England  as  in  Gaul 
(and  he  may  have  added  Spain)  the  clergy  took  a  prominent 
share  in  legislation  and  administration,  and  some  knowledge 
of  Roman  law  would  therefore  be  considered  as  part  of  the 
equipment  of  a  learned  man.* 

By  arithmetic  and  astronomy  (which  he  distinguishes  from 

^  Op.  cit.  296,  note.  2  Qp^  ^^y    ^^^ 

^  Smith's  Bede^  p.  28. 

*  Roger,  L' enseignement  des  Lettres  Classiques,  p.  293. 
VOL.  III. — 24 


370   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

astrology),  Aldhelm  doubtless  meant  the  astronomiae  et  arith- 
meiicae  ecclesiasticae  disciplina  which  Hadrian,  according  to  Bede, 
had  taught. 1 

In  dealing  with  his  Latin  style,  we  must  distinguish  the  poet 
and  the  prose  writer.  First,  in  regard  to  his  prose.  His  claim 
to  have  been  the  first  of  Englishmen  to  practise  the  art  of 
Latin  composition  in  prose  and  verse  was  not  unreasonable, 
and  he  might  have  been,  and  probably  was  (like  most  poets  are 
prone  to  be),  a  little  self-conscious.  One  of  his  own  lines  which 
he  is  fond  of  quoting,  is  repeated  in  five  of  his  compositions.  In 
it  he  apostrophises  St.  Peter  as  "  Claviger  aetherius  qui  portam 
pandit  in  aethra^^  i.e.  "  Key-bearer  of  heaven  who  opens  the  way 
to  the  skies."  ^ 

458  .  .  .  13. — ^thelwald  gives  a  glowing  description  of 
Aldhelm,  beginning : 

"  Vale  vale,  fidissime 
Phile  Christo  carissime 
Quevi  in  cordis  cubiculo 
Cingo  amoris  vinculo.''^ 

It  describes  Aldhelm  as  of  virile  shape  and  sage  in  deed  and 
word,  of  noble  race  and  dignified  stature,  agile,  with  white  or 
bright  hair  {caput  candesce?is  crinil?us),  keen  eyes,  red  cheeks, 
excellent  bearing,  wonderful  hands,  graceful  and  strong  legs 
{tibiae  cursu  terefes),  and  he  ends  by  wishing  him  a  happy  life 
under  God's  protection  here,  and  everlasting  joy  in  the  next 
world.  ^ 

462  .  .  .  20. — Bugga's  church  is  said  to  have  been  at 
Withington  in  Gloucestershire,  near  Malmesbury. 

464  .  .  .  5. — In  this  poem,  de  Laudibus  Virginis,  he  thus 
describes  an  organ : 

^  We  must  always  remember,  however,  that  his  various  studies,  and 
notably  those  among  the  classical  authors,  were  not  inspired  by  any  love  of  the 
matter  of  their  contents.  It  was  in  order  to  enable  him  better  to  study  the 
Bible  that  he  took  this  pains.  In  writing  to  his  pupil  ^thelwald,  he  pressed 
on  him  that  the  only  use  of  secular  learning  was  to  illuminate  that  which  was 
divine.  Of  science  or  true  learning  he  had  very  little.  We  must  not  wonder, 
says  Dr.  Bright,  at  his  believing  that  St.  Clement  of  Rome  wrote  the  Itiner- 
arium  Petri,  that  Pope  Silvester  bound  a  pestilent  serpent,  or  that  Constan- 
tine  was  cured  of  leprosy  by  being  baptized  (Bright,  294). 

2  It  occurs  in  his  poem  on  the  altars  of  the  Virgin  and  the  Apostles,  in 
that  written  in  honour  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  in  his  letter  to  Acircius,  and 
he  offers  it  as  a  specimen  in  his  poem  on  Virginity  addressed  to  the  Nuns 
of  Barking  (see  Browne,  op.  cit.  333  and  334).' 

»  Giles,  Aid.  0pp.,  113. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  371 

*  *  Si  vero  quisqitatn  ckordarufn  resptiit  odas, 

Et  cantu  gracili  refitgit  contentus  adesse 
Maxima  millenis  auscultans  organa  Jiabris 
Mulceat  aiiditiim  vcntosis  follibtis  isie, 
Quamlibet  auratis  fulge scant  cetera  capsis.'''' 

He  was  himself  a  skilful  lute  player,  and  he  seems  to  be 
sarcastic  about  those  who  are  not  content  with  the  "graceful 
musick  of  stringed  instruments,"  but  prefer  to  "soothe  their 
ears  with  the  blasts  of  the  great  organs  with  their  gusty  bellows 
and  thousand  pipes  glittering  in  their  gilded  cases."  ^ 

467  ..  .  passim. — It  is  easy  to  criticise  all  this,  but  we  forget  in 
doing  so  that  what  we  call  style  or  taste  (and  simplicity  and  natural- 
ness are  two  prominent  elements  in  it)  is  the  growth  of  culture, 
and  is  not  a  spontaneous  gift.  When  Hindoos  and  Japanese 
first  come  face  to  face  with  Western  thought  and  the  contents  of 
Western  knowledge,  and  they  attempt  to  write  English,  it  is  just 
as  pedantic  and  artificial  and  involved.  The  prose  of  Henry  the 
Eighth's  time,  and  perhaps  still  more  that  of  the  late  seventeenth 
century,  is  much  of  it  loaded  with  the  same  dead  weight  of  false 
ornament,  and  we  must  remember  what  it  must  have  been  for  an 
Anglo-Saxon  from  the  wilds  of  Wessex  to  come  in  contact  with 
all  the  available  contents  of  Latin  and  Greek  and  Hebrew  learn- 
ing, and  then  to  set  to  work,  in  what  to  him  was  a  foreign  tongue, 
to  try  and  pour  out  the  golden  grain  again  for  his  spiritual  and 
secular  children.  He  naturally  used  up  a  large  number  of  allu- 
sions which  were  new  to  his  readers,  and  sounded  very  learned. 
His  correspondents  wrote  more  or  less  in  the  same  style.  The 
play  upon  words  in  measured  lines  was  an  amusement  in  earlier 
times  than  Aldhelm's,  and  Mr.  Wildman  quotes  two  notable 
lines  from  Sidonius  Apollinaris.  One  is  very  ingenious  ;  it  reads 
exactly  alike  backwards  and  forwards  : 

"  Roma  tibi  siibito  motibus  ibit  amory 

A  second  one  is  not  so  good,  because  it  contains  a  false  quantity 
and  a  hiatus,  and  has  no  satisfactory  meaning : 

"  Sole  medere  pede  ede  perede  melos." 

Although  Aldhelm  was  the  first  Englishman  to  introduce  this 
inflated  and  artificial  style  in  Latin,  it  is  pretty  clear  he  did  not 
invent  it.     Haddan  long  ago  pointed  out  that  even  he  does  not 
^  Aldhelm's  Works,  by  Giles,  107,  loS. 


3  7  2  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

use  it,  at  least  to  the  same  extent,  in  all  his  writings,  and  chiefly 
reserves  it  for  "  Irish  friends  or  pupils  from  Ireland,"  such  as 
Eahfrid.  Quite  lately  M.  Roger  has  shown  that  it  came  in  fact 
from  Irish  and  Welsh  models,  like  the  Hisperica  Famina,  or 
British  ones,  as  was  also  the  case  with  the  Lorica  of  Bede. 

Thus  he  says :  " ....  En  lisant  I'epitre  a  Eahfrid,  on  se 
demande  d'abord  si  ce  n'est  pas  une  plaisanterie,  quelque  chose 
comme  le  chapitre  ou  Rabelais  raille  les  latiniseurs  de  son  temps. 
Peut-etre  Aldhelm  a-t-il  voulu,  ecrivant  a  un  homme  qui  etudiait 
en  Irlande,  montrer  qu'on  pouvait  posseder  un  beau  style  sans 
avoir  entrepris  ce  voyage.  .  .  .  Peut-etre  aussi  I'ecole  litteraire 
qui  avait  produit  les  Hisperica  Famina  avait-elle  des  admirateurs 
qu'Aldhelm  eut  le  desir  de  satisfaire.  Toujours  est-il  que  cette 
lettre  differe  sensiblement  du  reste  de  son  ceuvre.  Les  lettres 
k  Geronte,  k  Hseddi,  k  un  clerc  de  Wilfrid  sont  tout  k  fait  intel- 
ligibles.  Aldhelm  lui-meme  nous  a  confie  qu'il  avait  deux  styles  : 
quand  il  etait  presse  il  ^crivait  vite,  sans  ecarter  du  sujet  {cursim 
pedetemptim)^  dans  le  cas  contraire  il  se  laissait  entrainer  par  la 
douceur  du  bavardage  {garrulo  verbositas  strepttu)^  ^ 

Aldhelm  created  a  certain  number  of  new  words,  but  not 
many.  M.  Roger  has  collected  a  group  of  them.^  His  style 
abounds  in  Hellenisms  and  in  unaltered  Greek  words,  sometimes 
written  in  Greek  letters,  as  in  the  phrase,  "  ad  doxam  onomatis 
i^=ztos)  Kyrie." 

The  wealth  of  his  vocabulary  and  the  number  of  his  synonyms 
are  amazing.  Turning  to  his  poetry,  it  is  remarkable,  as  M.  Roger 
has  pointed  out,  that  the  defects  so  patent  in  Aldhelm's  prose 
style  should  be  much  less  obvious  in  his  poetry.  He  explains  this 
very  neatly  in  the  following  sentences :  "  II  semblerait  que  les 
libertes  du  langage  po^tique  et  la  faculte  d'employer  des  images 
offraient,  a  la  subtilite  dAldhelm,  une  matiere  plus  riche  encore 
que  la  prose.  Pourtant,  ses  vers  sont  la  partie  de  son  oeuvre  la  plus 
intelligible.  C'est  qu'ici,  il  a  ^te  mieux  guide  dans  le  choix  de 
ses  modeles,  et  surtout  qu'il  a  ete  contraint  k  plus  de  retenue  par 
son  inexperience."^  In  his  treatise  on  the  art  of  poetry  he 
quotes  freely  from  ancient  models  as  examples,  while  in  his  own 
practice  he  relies  more  on  the  Christian  poets.  He  was  especially 
troubled  by  the  difficulties  of  "  quantity  "  in  versification,  and  by 
Latin  syntax  as  compared  with  his  own.  Latin  to  him  was  a  new 
tongue,  so  that  he  was  not  like  the  Franks  and  Visigoths,  with 
whom  Latin  was  passing  into  a  jargon,  and  among  whom  the  writers 
^  Oj>.  cit.  295.  ^  lb.  296,  note.  ^  lb.  297. 


CORRECTIOxXS  AND  NOTES  373 

had  to  unlearn  a  barbarous  decaying  language  if  they  were  to  acquit 
themselves  well  in  writing  Latin.  As  M.  Roger  says,  the  monks 
of  Malmesbury  and  Jarrow  had  as  their  mother  tongue  a  parody 
of  the  language  which  they  had  to  learn.  He  was,  however, 
troubled  by  the  fact  that  the  sense  of  quantity  was  not  known  in 
his  own  speech,  for  its  poetry  was  one  of  rhythm,  which  had  im- 
posed itself  upon  the  Latin  hymns  in  the  Church,  and  which 
would  have  been  anathema  to  the  poets  of  the  Golden  Age,  and 
he  also  introduced  it  in  a  different  way,  namely,  by  a  recurrence 
of  accent  at  certain  intervals  in  the  lines.  It  was  the  restraint 
imposed  by  these  difficulties  that  probably  caused  Aldhelm  to 
write  a  much  better  and  simpler  style  in  verse  than  in  prose.  In 
writing  to  Haeddi  he  speaks  of  the  difficulty  of  writing  poetry. 
A  large  part  of  his  own  prose  vocabulary  to  which  older  poets  had 
not  assigned  quantity  was  banished  from  his  verse.  In  addition 
to  which  it  was  not  possible  to  force  a  good  many  abstract  terms, 
Hellenisms,  and  compound  words  into  hexameters. 

473  .  .  .  20. — These  verses  on  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  are 
twenty-one  in  number.  They  comprise  nine  also  contained  in 
the  much  larger  poem  on  Bugga's  basilica,  which  Mr.  Wildman 
therefore  deems  to  be  earlier.  In  the  latter  poem  King  Caed- 
walla  is  mentioned  as  recently  dead,  so  that  it  was  written 
probably  about  690.  It  must  have  been  composed  before  that 
year,  so  also  for  the  same  reason  must  ^thelwald's  letter  and 
Aldhelm's  answer.     See  also  his  letter  to  Osgith. 

474  .  .  .  9. — Cellan  calls  him  Archimandrite  (abbot),  and  he 
had  ceased  to  be  Abbot  and  become  Bishop  in  705. 

477  ..  .  9. — In  his  letter  to  Eahfrid^  Aldhelm  quotes  some 
lines  from  his  own  tract  on  Virginity.  He  also  speaks  in  it  of 
Theodore  as  still  living,  though  he  is  also  referred  to  as  ^^  beatae 
7fiemoriae"  and  as  Theodore  died  in  690,  it  proves  that  all  the 
treatise  on  Virginity  was  finished  before  690,  and  possibly  some 
time  before. 

494  .  .  .  25. — His  health  was  doubtless  injured  by  his  austeri- 
ties, and,  as  in  other  cases,  he  was  prone  to  exaggerations. 
Thus  William  of  Malmesbury  tells  us  that  in  order  to  check  the 
temptations  of  the  flesh  he  used  to  submerge  himself  in  a  well 
near  the  monastery  both  winter  and  summer,  while  he  sang  the 
Hours.  The  well  was  afterwards  called  after  him,  as  another 
well  was  called  after  Bishop  Daniel. 2  Malmesbury  also  puts  it 
to  his  credit  that  in  order  to  preserve  his  chastity  he  did  not 
^  Ante,  ii.  465,  466.  2  Q^^ta  Pont.,  357. 


374   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

seclude  himself  as  others  did  from  the  society  of  women,  but 
he  took  other  precautions,  showing  what  straits  the  unnatural 
celibate  life  imposes  on  saints  by  enhancing  libidinous  thoughts. 
{Inmio  vero  vel  assidens  vel  cubit ans  aliqiiam  detifiebat ;  quoad  carnis 
tepescente  hcbrico,  quieto  et  immoto  discederet  animo.  Derideri  se 
videbat  Diabolus^  cernens  adherentei7i  foe?m?tam  viru?nque^  alias 
avocato  animo^  insiste7item  cantando  Psalterio.  Valefaciebat  ille 
mulieri  salvo  pudore^  illasa  castitate.  Residebat  carnis  incom- 
modum  ;  dolebat  nequam  spiritus  de  se  agitati  ludibriumy) 

When  writing  the  life  of  Aldhelm  in  an  earlier  page^  I 
postponed  an  appreciation  of  his  mental  gifts  to  a  later 
opportunity,  and  feel  constrained,  therefore,  to  devote  a  few 
paragraphs  to  them  here. 

When  we  measure  his  literary  position  we  must  remember 
that  he  was  the  very  first  Saxon,  as  far  as  we  know,  who  was 
a  scholar  and  literary  man  in  our  sense  of  the  word.  He 
was  the  beginner  and  fountain  source  of  the  long  stream 
of  scholars  who  have  since  so  abundantly  flourished  in  these 
realms  :  this  he  claims  for  himself.  "  No  one,"  he  says,  "  sprung 
from  our  stock,  and  born  of  German  blood,  has  before  our 
mediocre  work  done  this  kind  of  thing  "  {quanto  cofistat  ne?ninem 
nostrae  stirpis  prosapia  genifum^  et  Germa?ticae  gentis  cunabulis 
confotum,  in  hujusinodi  negotio  ante  nostra??t  ?nediocritatem 
tafttopere  desudasse).^  This  not  only  in  Latin  prose  compositions 
but  in  verse  also.     And  thus  he  applies  to  himself  Virgil's  own 

lines  : 

'^Primus  ego  in  patriam  mecuvi  [tnodo  vita  super sif), 
Aonio  rediens  deducam  vertice  Musas 
Prhyius  Idumaeas  refera?)i  tibi,  Mantiia  pahfias.^"^ 

This  must  be  remembered  when  we  criticise  his  prose  style, 
which  is  full  of  the  most  pompous,  elaborate,  and  loaded 
rhetoric.  His  sentences  seem  "frozen  with  pedantic  formal- 
ism," says  one  critic.  He  literally  chokes  the  narrative  with  his 
images  and  metaphors,  and  delights  in  "  literary  sleight  of  hand, 
in  acrostics,  in  enigmas,  in  alliterations,  in  a  play  upon  words,  and 
a  childish  and  grotesque  redundance  of  expression."  Lingard, 
another  critic,  says  of  him  and  his  scholars  :  "  They  looked  upon 
simplicity  as  a  fault.  Their  object  was  to  surprise  and  dazzle. 
They  transferred  to  their  Latin  prose  all  the  gorgeous  apparatus 
of  their  national  poetry,  bewildered  themselves  and  their  readers 

1  Gesta  Pont.,  358.  ^  j^f^^  jj,  485. 

^  Episi.  ad  Acirciumy  ed.  Giles,  327.  ^  lb. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  375 

amidst  a  profusion  of  extravagant  metaphors,  and,  as  if  the 
language  of  Rome  was  too  poor  to  depict  their  conceptions, 
bespangled  every  sentence  with  Greek  words  in  a  Latin  dress."  ^ 
"  His  language,"  says  Haddan,  "  for  enigmatic  erudition  and 
artificial  rhetoric,  rivals  Armado  and  Holophernes,  or  Euphues."  ^ 
Of  this  school  of  writers  in  England  Aldhelm  was  the  leader,  the 
past  master. 

"  Never  content  with  illustrating  his  sentiment  by  an  adapted 
simile,  he  is  perpetually  abandoning  his  subject  to  pursue  his 
imagery.  He  illustrates  his  illustrations  till  he  has  forgotten  both 
their  meaning  and  apphcability.  Hence  his  style  is  an  endless 
tissue  of  figures  which  he  never  leaves  till  he  has  converted  every 
metaphor  into  a  simile  and  every  simile  into  a  wearisome 
episode.  .  .  .  His  imagery  was  valued  for  its  minuteness, 
although  usually  unnecessary  to  its  subject,  .  .  .  and  yet  as  these 
long  details  contained  considerable  information  for  an  unculti- 
vated mind,  and  sometimes  presented  pictures  which  in  a  poem 
might  not  have  been  uninteresting,  it  was  read  with  curiosity 
and  praised  with  enthusiasm.  Sharon  Turner  argues  (I  think 
justly)  that  the  violence  and  exuberance  of  his  metaphors  and 
images  was  largely  derived  from  similar  features  in  Northern 
poetry  to  which  they  were  natural."  ^ 

Involved,  pompous,  and  parenthetical  as  his  prose  style  is, 
it  is  yet  remarkable  what  a  rich  vocabulary  and  what  dexterous 
employment  of  idioms  it  also  implies. 

Among  his  own  works  Aldhelm  probably  valued  most 
what  had  cost  him  the  most  labour,  namely,  his  work  on  the 
metrical  art  and  on  versification.  When  he  was  at  school  at 
Canterbury  he  tells  us  how  he  studied  this  art,  which  was 
apparently  a  prominent  feature  of  the  school  curriculum,  as  it 
has  been  until  lately  in  our  grammar  schools.  He  tells  us  how 
elaborately  the  art  of  versification  was,  in  fact,  taught :  ''  Poetica 
septefiae  divisioiiis  discipli?ia,  hoc  est,  acephalas^  procilas  cum 
caeteris  qualiter  varietur^  qui  versus  monostevii^  qui  pentaste?}n^ 
qui  decastemi  certa  pedum  me7isura  termi?ientur ;  et  qua  ratio7ie 
catalectici  et  brachyacatalectici  setc  ipse  ipercatalecti  versus  sagace 
argii7nentatio?ie  colligantury 

How  this  was  taught  without  special  handbooks  and  other 
apparatus  is  hard  to  imagine.  It  would  seem  that  Aldhelm  was 
determined  that  the  ingenuous  youth  of  England  should  travel  an 

'^Anglo-Saxon  Churchy  ii.  152.  "^ Remains^  267, 

'^History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons^  iii.  403,  404. 


376  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

easier  road  than  he  had  had  to  travel  himself,  and  he  made  up 
his  mind  to  write  a  manual  or  guide-book  for  the  purpose.  He 
does  so  on  a  very  elaborate  scale,  elaborating  minute  details 
of  grammar,  prosody,  and  metrical  rules,  and  quoting  Virgil 
very  frequently,  Ovid  twenty-six  times,  and  Lucan  often,  Persius 
and  Terence,  Horace  and  Juvenal  as  his  models. 

In  dealing  with  the  life  of  Aldhelm  in  the  text  I  postponed  to 
a  later  page  the  consideration  of  his  treatment  of  Latin  poetry,  in 
which  he  was  a  remarkable  innovator.  This  subject  he  discusses 
in  his  well-known  treatise  addressed  to  his  friend.  King  Alchfred 
of  Northumbria,  whom  he  styles  Acircius,  and  which  he  otherwise 
calls  "  Liber  de  Septeiiario  et  de  metris  aenigmatibus  ac  pedum 
regulis.^^  In  the  first  section  of  the  book,  which  is  very  irrelevant 
to  his  main  subject,  allusion  is  made  to  the  sevenfold  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  and  to  the  Seven  Sacraments.  Aldhelm  then  plunges  into 
a  discussion  on  the  importance  of  the  number  seven.  He  goes 
through  the  records  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  to  prove  his 
case,  and  in  some  cases  reaches  ingenious  if  not  profitable  results. 
Thus  he  points  out  that  there  are  seven  petitions  in  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  eleven  times  seven  generations  in  the  pedigree  of 
Jesus  as  given  by  St.  Luke. 

A  large  part  of  the  work  is  devoted  to  an  elaborate  account 
of  the  various  kinds  of  metrical  poetry, — that  is,  the  poetry  of  metre, 
such  as  hexameters,  iambics,  trochaics,  etc., — with  a  dissection  of 
the  laws  of  metre  and  their  application.     This  analysis  he  pursues 
at  great  length  with  considerable  skill  and  minuteness,  following 
the  method  and  the  results  of  the  older  Latin  grammarians,  and 
giving  numerous  illustrative  examples,  some  of  which  are  telling. 
Thus  in  bidding  his  pupil  distinguish  between  carex  (a  sedge  or  rush) 
and  carica  (a  dried  fig),  he  mentions  the  confusion  caused  by  a 
writer  who  told  how  a  hermit  in  the  East  sustained  his  exhausted 
limbs  by  eating  five  rushes  a  day,  as  though  he  were  a  fasting  ox  or 
stag,  while  all  the  time  he  really  meant  that  the  poor  man  lived 
on  five   figs.       He    points  out  that   in   the   word   conjunx   the 
letter  n  only    occurs  in  the    nominative  and  vocative  singular, 
and    bids  him    distinguish  between  sedeo  with  short  e  and  sede 
with  a  long  one,  and  liquor  and  7iitor  in  one  verse  having  a  long 
vowel  and  in  another  a  short  one  ;    but  he  sometimes   makes 
mistakes. 

Occasionally  he  is  much  puzzled  how  to  get  Latin  names  into 
his  lines  without  metrical  breaches  ;  thus  he  converts  the  name 
of  the  nun  Eustochia  into  Eustochium,  using  the  former  in  his 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  377 

prose  and  the  latter  in  his  verse.  The  name  Chionia,  says  Bishop 
Browne,  seems  to  have  been  too  much  for  him.  He  evades  the 
difficulty  by  saying  of  her  and  her  sisters  Irene  and  Agape, 
"  Quarum  per  prosa^n  descripsi  ?iomi?ia  dudu?n"  The  sister 
of  Rufina  is  not  directly  mentioned  by  him  in  his  verse. 
He  evades  his  difficulty  here  by  referring  to  her  as  aetate 
secunda} 

Having  described  in  narrative  form  the  varieties  of  metre  and 
various  critical  matters  referring  to  it,  he  adopts  a  form  of 
dialogue  in  which  a  disciple  puts  questions  and  the  master 
replies — thus  : 

D.  What  is  an  acephalan  ? 

M.  A  verse  without  a  head,  where  the  first  syllable  is  short, 
contrary  to  the  nature  of  the  verse. 

D.  Give  me  an  authoritative  example. 

M.  In  the  second  verse  of  the  ^neid  Virgil  has  placed  an 
acephalan,  thus  ^^  Italiam  fato profugus,^^  and  sanctions  a  barbarism 
by  using  a  tribrach  for  a  dactyl.     And  so  on. 

In  another  part  of  his  work  Aldhelm  discusses  phonology  in 
an  elementary  way,  and  distinguishes  what  he  calls  the  articulate 
speech  of  man  from  the  inarticulate  in  animals.  Again  asked  by 
his  pupil  how  he  would  describe  the  speech  of  animals,  he  says  : 
Bees,  ambizant  or  bombizant  \  birds,  minuriunt  or  uerna?it  or 
uernicant',  asses,  oncant  or  rudiuiit\  horses,  hi?iniunt  \  a  jug 
when  water  is  poured  from  it,  bibiiit;  hens,  cacillani;  cocks, 
cantant  or  cucurriiint  \  wolves,  ululant ;  sheep,  balant ;  par- 
tridges, cacaba?it\  young  pigs,  grun?iiu?tt',  old  pigs,  grundiunt ; 
chickens  and  hoy?>,  pipa?it ;  men,  ioquuntur;  yokels,  Jubt'ianf  ;^ 
etc.  etc. 

Ordinary  poetry,  however,  which  followed  classical  models, 
did  not  suffice  to  meet  the  tastes  of  the  times.  It  was  too  long 
and  tedious,  perhaps,  and  was  supplemented  by  what  became 
a  favourite  amusement,  namely,  the  making  of  enigmas  and 
riddles,  the  meaning  and  answers  to  w^hich  were  more  or  less 
deftly  concealed  and  had  to  be  guessed.  The  great  model  for 
these  was  a  collection  which  sometimes  passed  under  the  name 
of  Lactantius  and  was  known  as  Symposii  ae?2igmata,  either  the 
work  of  a  certain  Symposius,  or  more  probably,  as  Wright 
says,  symposiaea  aenigmata,  "  nuts  to  crack  over  our  wine." 
The  riddles  in  this  collection  assigned  to  Lactantius  are   105 

^  See  Bishop  Browne,  St,  Aldhehn^  320. 
'  lb.  307. 


378  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

in  number  and  all   arranged   in   triplets.      The  following  is  an 

example  : 

A  Ship 

*  *  Longa  feror  velox  formosae  Jilia  silvae. 
Innumera  pariter  cojnittun  stipante  caterva  ; 
Curro  vias  multas  vestigia  nulla  relinquensJ'* 

Aldhelm  was  not  content  to  rigidly  follow  Lactantius  as  a 
model  in  limiting  his  enigmas  to  triplets,  but  inaugurated  a  new 
departure,  consisting  of  enigmas  with  a  larger  number  of  lines. 
Of  these  he  sends  a  hundred  specimens  to  his  patron,  giving 
a  Greek  name  to  each  class,  namely  : 

19  of  4  lines  .     aenigmata  teU'asticha. 

15  of  5  lines  .  ,,  pentasticha. 

13  of  6  lines  .  ,,  hexasticha. 

19  of  7  lines  .  ,,  heptasticha. 

10  of  8  lines  .  ,,  ostosticha. 

1 1  of  9  lines  .  , ,  enneasticha. 
4  of  10  lines  .  ,,  decasticha. 

4  of  1 1  lines     .  ,,  hendecasticha. 

I  of  12  lines     .  ,,  dodecastichon. 

I  of  13  lines     .  ,,  traicaidecastichon. 

I  of  15  lines     .  ,,  pentecaidecasticlion  (the  example   really 

contains  16). 
I  of  16  lines     .  ,,  heccaidecastichon. 

I  of  83  or  88  lines  (the  MSS  vary)     .     aenigmata polystichon} 

I  will  give  an  example  of  one  of  these  enigmas  in  Latin  and 
a  translation  of  a  few  more. 

^'  Qtiamvis  acre  cava  salpinctis  classica  clangant  ; 
Et  citharae  crepitetit,  strepituque  tubae  juodulentur : 
Cenienos  tamen  eructant  niea  viscej'a  cantus : 
Meque  strepente  stupent  fjiox  musica  cordaJibra?-um.^^ 

The  answer  to  this  is  an  organ. 

"  Once  was  I  water,  full  of  scaly  fish. 
My  nature  changed,   by  changed  decree  of  fate. 
I  suffered  torments,  torrid  by  the  flames, 
My  face  now  shines  like  whitest  ash  or  snow." 

The  answer  is  salt. 

**  Forth  from  the  fruitful  turf  I  spring  unsown, 
My  head  gleams  yellow  with  its  shining  flower. 
At  eve  I  shut,  at  sunrise  ope  again. 
Hence  the  wise  Greeks  have  given  my  name  to  me." 

A  wallflower  {Heliotropion). 

*  Aldh^lmi  0pp.  ^  ed.  Giles,  249-72, 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  379  i 

**  My  coat  is  black  and  made  of  wrinkled  bark,  j 

And  yet  within  I  have  a  marrow  white  ;  "I 

At  royal  dinners,  in  the  soup  and  stews  ' 
And  other  meats  I  play  a  proper  part, 
But  still  no  virtue  would  you  find  in  me 

Were  not  my  inside  pounded  very  fine."  i 

Pepper.  ' 

"  Twin  sisters  we,  that  share  a  common  lot,  I 

And  by  our  labour  furnish  food  for  all.  ; 

Equal  our  toil,  unequal  is  our  task, 

One  sister  runs,  the  other  never  moves  ;  ; 

And  yet  we  feel  no  envy,  each  for  each.  ( 

Both  chew  our  food,  but  it  we  never  swallow. 
We  break  it  up  and  give  it  freely  back."  ; 

A  pair  of  millstones. 

One  more  will  suffice  :  ! 

"  Lo  many  a  draught  of  Bacchus  to  make  men  drunk  I  save,  i 

Squeezed  by  the  wine-dresser's  hands  from  the  yellowing  bunch 
Which  hung  from  the  leafy  green  of  the  fruits  of  the  vine,  , 

Filling  with  nectar  of  grape  the  innkeeper's  booths.  \ 

I  swell  to  the  fullest  extent  with  the  juice  of  the  vine,  j 

And  yet  never  feel  in  myself  any  evil  effect  ;  ^ 

No,  not  though  the  nectar  that  fills  me  be  drawn  from  a  hundred  casks,  ! 

The  child  of  the  soil  am  I,  grown  up  in  the  loftiest  groves,  ' 

My  substance  is  cloven  and  riven  with  wedges  by  rustic  hands  | 

When  oaks  and  when  pines  in  the  glades  by  the  axe  are  o'erthrown."^  j 

Answer,  a  wooden  wine-cup.  ! 

Turning  from  ■  his  enigmas,  I  will  now  give  a  fair  specimen  ] 

of  Aldhelm's  skill  in  narrative  poetry.    Here  is  a  description  of  a  ' 

storm  by  him  :  j 

"  Mox  igiHir  coehim  ni?nbosa  turbine  totum, 
Et  convexa  poll  nigrescunt  aethere  furvo, 
Mu7'mura  vasta  sonant  flamiriis  commisia  cornscis 
Et  tremuit  tellus  magfio  tretnebtinda  fragore 
Humida  rorifiuis  hiimectant  veliera  guttis 

Irrigat  et  terram  tenebrosis  imbribus  aer  i 

Completitur  valles,  et  larga  jiitenta  redundant."^  ' 

If  there  is  not  much  poetic  fervour  in  these  lines  there  is  certainly  ; 

music  and  grace  and  restraint,  and  a  nice  choice  of  phrases,  which  \ 

one  would  hardly  have  expected  from  a  Wessex  monk  in  the  j 

year  700  a.d.  \ 

*  Bishop  Browne,  op.  cit.  311-312.  j 

2  De  Land.  Virg.^  ed.  Giles,  p.  191.  1 


38o  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

These  were  not  the  only  forms  of  poetry  in  which  he  indulged. 
There  had  long  existed  a  class  of  poets  who  had  emancipated 
themselves  from  their  strict  metrical  rules  and  "  substituted  the 
harmonies  of  emphasis  or  accent  and  of  rhythm  for  that  of 
metre.  It  might  happen  that  both  would  coincide,  but  this  was 
a  matter  of  chance.  The  new  style,  or  taste  as  we  may  call  it, 
was  dependent  on  the  melody  of  the  ear  as  governed  by  the 
artificial  distribution  of  accent,  and  not  to  the  measure  of  the 
syllable  as  to  whether  it  was  long  or  short,  and  this  presently  led  to 
the  corruption  in  the  quantities  of  even  well-known  Latin  words." 

Bede  defines  rhythm  as  "  verborum  modulata  compositio,  non 
metrica  ratione  sed  numero  syllabarum  ad  Judicium  auriwn  ex- 
aminata,  ut  su?tt  carmina  vulgarium poetarum."  ^  "  Thus  in  a  line 
of  eight  syllables,  by  placing  the  accent  or  ictus  on  every  second 
syllable,  was  formed  an  imitation  of  iambic  tetrameter  verse,  and 
by  placing  it  on  the  first  and  every  second  syllable  afterwards  in 
succession,  an  imitation  of  the  trochaic.  .  .  .  This  form  of  versi- 
fication was  much  admired  by  the  Anglo-Saxons.  Not  only  was 
the  melody  more  striking,  and  the  composition  more  easy,  but 
it  was  consecrated  in  their  eyes  by  the  example  of  the  celebrated 
St.  Ambrose,  and  by  the  introduction  of  hymns  composed  in 
that  form  into  their  choral  service.  ...  In  all  their  imitations, 
however,  they  are  careful  to  add  an  ornament  which  is  found 
only  by  accident  in  the  original  models,  the  ornament  of  final 
rhymes  to  the  lines  of  each  couplet."  ^  These  imitations  of 
iambic  and  trochaic  metres  were  very  general  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  poets. 

Aldhelm  was  not  content  with  the  standard  poetry  of  classical 
times,  nor  yet  with  the  variations  from  it  here  described,  but 
diverged  into  other  forms  consisting  partially  of  his  own  creation 
and  partially  a  transference  of  forms  already  existing  in  the 
vernacular  poetry  in  which  he  was  such  an  adept.  In  some  of 
his  efforts  the  difficulty  of  the  metre  was  increased  by  the  intro- 
duction of  middle  as  well  as  final  rhymes  in  each  line,  as  in  this 
riddle  : 

*'  Lebes" 

^^  HorridUy  curva,  rapax^  patulis  fabricata  metallis 
Pendeo :  nee  coelu7n  iangens,  terramve  profundam ; 
Ignibus  ardescens,   nee  non  et  gurgite  fervens, 
S/e  geminas  vario  patior  diserimine  pugnas 
Dum  ly?7tphae  latices  iolero,  Jlammasque  feroces.^' 


^  De  arte  Metrica^  c.  24,  p.  77.  ^  Lingard,  i.  161  and  163. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  381 

Acrostics,  again,  were  another  form  which  this  verse-making 
took.  There  were  both  single  and  double ;  the  latter  being 
formed  by  the  combination  of  the  initial  and  final  letters  of  the 
lines  into  a  sentence  to  be  read  sometimes  in  a  descending, 
sometimes  in  an  ascending  direction.  The  following  beginning 
of  an  acrostic  by  Aldhelm  is  on  his  own  name  : 

'*  Arbiter,  aetherco  Jupiter^  qui  regmine  sceptrA 
Lticefltiimique  uimul  coeli  regale  tribunaL 
Dispof2is,  moderans  ceteruis  legibtis  illuD 
Horrida  nam  t/niktans  torsisti  membra  BehemotH 
Ex  alia  quondam  m.eret  diim  luridus  arcE 
Limpida  dictanti  metrorum  carmina  praesuL 
Munera  nunc  largire  :  rudis  quo  pandere  reruM 
Versibus  aenigmata  queam  clandestina  fat  U 
Sic  Deus  indignis  tua  gratis  dona  repentiS. "  * 

This  is  a  conclusive  proof  of  the  way  in  which  his  name  was 
spelt. 

The  acrostic  continues  with  a  good  many  lines,  the  whole 
making  the  sentence  "  Aldhelmus  cecinit  milUnis  versibus  odas^'^ 
which  probably  preserves  for  us  the  number  of  lines  of  which  the 
aenigmata  originally  consisted,  and  which  seem  to  show  that  the 
collection  of  these  riddles  is  now  incomplete.  Wright  says  that 
in  one  MS.  he  had  seen  they  contain  764  lines,  while  the  printed 
text  contains  755  lines. 

In  the  double  acrostic  preceding  the  treatise  on  Virginity  the 
key-line  reads  : 

*'  Metrica  tirones  nunc  promant  carmina  castos.^' 

The  letters  of  this  verse  form  the  initials  and  concluding 
letters  of  the  several  lines,  and  had  to  be  read  downwards  at  the 
beginning  and  upwards  at  the  end.  The  whole  ended  with  a 
puzzle  consisting  of  the  key-line  reversed  thus  : 

^^  Sotsac  animract  Namorp  Cnunsenorita  cirte." 

Aldhelm  and  his  scholars  elaborated  a  still  further  device, 
which  the  same  writer  says  is  peculiar  to  them,  namely,  the 
frequent  introduction  of  alliteration,  in  which  there  was  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  same  letter  in  the  same  line  or  in  both  lines  of  the 
couplet,  without  attention  to  the  accent.  This  is  found  in 
several  short  poems  by  Aldhelm  and  his  scholars.     A  notable 

^  Giles,  op.  cit,  248. 


382  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

example  is  the  following   by  Ethelwald  describing  his  master's 
appearance,  which  runs  as  follows  : 

"  Sum?no  satore  sobolis 
Satus  fuisti  nobis 
Generosa  progenitus 
Genetrice  expeditus, 
Statura  spectabilis, 
Statu  et  forma  agilis 
Caput  candescens  crinibus 
Cingunt  capilli  nitidis 
Lucent  sub  fronte  lumina 
Lati  ceu  per  cuhnina 
Coeli  catidescunt  calida 
Clari  fulgoris  sidera.^''^ 

As  specimens  of  Aldhelm's  own  handiwork  in  this  method 
may  be  quoted  the  line, 

"Pallida,  purpurea,  pingis  qui /lore  vireta^^ ',^ 
and  again, 

'*  Et  potior  a  cupit  qtia^n  pulset  pectine  chordas 
Queis  psalmista  pius  psallebat  cantibus  olim. "  ^ 

This  form  of  poetry  is  very  interesting  to  us  since,  as  Lingard 
says,  it  was  of  English  invention,  or  rather,  probably,  it  was  adapted 
to  Latin  from  the  old  English  poems  in  which  alliteration  was  a 
marked  feature.  That  it  was  peculiarly  English  appears  from 
Ethelwald's  letter  to  Boniface,  enclosing  the  poem  last  quoted, 
in  which,  having  no  name  for  it,  he  describes  it  as  without  metre 
and  consisting  of  eight  syllables  in  the  line,  with  a  repetition  of 
the  same  letter  adapted  to  the  course  of  each  line  in  the 
couplet,  ^^  non  pedum  mensura^  elucubratwn  sed  octonis  syllabis  in 
uno  quolibet  versu  compositis,  una  eademque  litera  comparibus 
linecarum  transmitibus  aptata."  ^ 

His  works  prove  the  extent  of  his  reading,  although,  as 
Manitius  has  said  of  them,  he  did  not  apparently  have  much 
access  to  the  Latin  writers  of  the  Golden  Age.  He  has  a 
single  reference  to  Pliny  the  younger,  three  to  Cicero — two  to 
his  second  oration  against  Verres  and  the  other  to  that  against 
Piso ;  one  passage  comes  from  Pliny  the  elder,  and  there  is  a 
reference  to  the  Jugurtha  of  Sallust,  probably  taken  from 
Priscian  or  some  other  Latin  writer.  He  quotes  frequently  from 
Solinus,  to  whom  Isidore  of  Seville  was  also  much  indebted. 

1  Giles,  op.  cit.  p.  113.        ^  Ih.  p.  136. 

^Wright,  44.  '^ Ep.  Bonif.,  ep.  Ixv.     Lingard,  ii.  164-165. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  3S3 

Among  Christian  writers  he  quotes  Orosius,  but  not  accurately ; 
the  Chronicle  of  Eusebius  in  the  edition  of  Jerome ;  the 
Dialogues  of  St.  Gregory ;  St.  Augustine,  of  whose  Cojifessions 
he  makes  a  special  mention,  while  he  also  quotes  from  his 
"Free  Will,"  "The  Master,"  and  "The  Mystic";  Sulpitius 
Severus,  Juvencus,  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  Sedulius  very  often, 
Arator  and  Cornippus  and  Venantius  Fortunatus  each  a  page  of 
citations,  of  whom  he  uses  the  Life  of  St.  Martin,  St.  Cyprian, 
St.  Cassian,  etc.  etc. ;  while  he  constantly  quotes  the  Latin  Bible.^ 
Plummer  has  shown  that,  like  Bede,  Aldhelm  quotes  the  Bible 
both  in  Jerome's  version  and  the  Old  Latin. 

In  addition  to  these,  he  knew  certain  works  of  the  gram- 
marians, such  as  Donatus  and  his  commentators  Sergius  and 
Pompeius,  Diomedes,  Phocas,  Audax,  Isidore  of  Seville,  and 
probably  also  Virgil  the  grammarian, ^  the  Encyclopajdia  of 
Suetonius  known  as  the  Frata,  and  Manitius  thinks  he  also  had 
access  to  the  work  on  the  Cries  of  Animals. 

As  Bright  says,  he  was,  we  cannot  doubt,  the  most  popular 
of  monks  or  priests.  His  scholars  loved  him  passionately  as 
their  most  attached  teacher  of  pure  learning.  "  Afi  a?nantissime 
piirae  iiistitutiotiis  praeceptor^^  says  his  scholar  Ethelwald  in  one 
of  his  letters  to  him,  and  he  goes  on  to  relate  how  he  had 
tenderly  watched  over  them  from  their  early  infancy  and  still 
continued  to  watch  over  them  and  advise  them.  He  was 
certainly  austere.  He  denounced  the  habit  of  gadding  about  on 
horseback  {equitandi  vagatione  culpabili)^  and  also  drinking  bouts 
and  protracted  feastings  {conviviis  usii  frequentiore  ac  prolixiore 
inho?ieste  superfluis).  He  advised  them  to  read  the  Scriptures 
rather  than  immoral  heathen  poetry.  (Alas  !  that  he  had  not 
been  so  exacting  here.)  He  bade  them  also  avoid  sensuality, 
to  be  simple  in  dress  and  habits,  and  to  keep  in  view  that  the 
end  of  all  secular  knowledge  was  to  better  study  and  know 
sacred  things.^ 

His  popularity  as  a  literary  man  may  be  gathered  from  a 
letter  of  St.  Boniface,  who  was  continually  sending  to  England  for 
books,  and  on  one  occasion  prays  one  of  his  friends  to  send  him 
some  of  those  of  Aldhelm  "to  console  him  amidst  his  labours 
with  the  memorials  of  that  holy  bishop."  ^ 

I  am  not  quite  so  certain  about  the  continuity  suggested  by 

*  Manitius,  Sitzungberichte  Vienna  Acad.^  cxii.  535,  etc. 
^  Roger,  Enseignement  des  Lett  res  Classiqiies,  291,  292. 
3  Bright,  445,  446.  ^  Wright,  35. 


384  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Dr.  Bright,  and  fancy  there  was  a  considerable  gap  between  the 
old  British  monastery  at  Glastonbury  associated  with  the  name 
of  King  Arthur  and  the  one  of  later  times.  Great  efforts  were 
made  afterwards  to  bridge  over  this  gap,  and  we  have  a  charter 
extant  which  is  dated  in  670,  and  professes  to  be  a  conveyance 
of  the  land  at  Ferramere  to  the  Abbot  of  Glastonbury,  but  two 
kings'  names  are  confused  in  the  document — in  one  place  he  is 
called  Ceadwalla  and  in  another  Cenualla. 

512  ..  .  22. — William  of  Malmesbury  says  picturesquely  of 
him:  ^^consce?idii  .  .  .  tremulum  regni  culmen  Ceolwitlfi."^ 


VOLUME   III 

6  .  .  .  3. — A  few  features  of  the  monastic  life  in  our  English 
monasteries  at  this  time  have  escaped  mention  in  the  preceding 
pages.  Thus  we  are  told  that,  while  the  monks  at  the  earlier 
date  enjoyed  a  siesta  after  their  noontide  meals,  St.  Dunstan 
only  allowed  himself  the  luxury  in  summer.^  They  always  slept 
in  their  habits  and  their  shoes.  There  was  a  separate  building 
for  the  novices,  one  reason  being  that  if  they  wished  to  return 
to  their  secular  life  they  could  reveal  no  secrets.  There  was 
also  a  separate  infirmary  to  which  the  sick  and  dying  were 
removed.  Thus  we  read  of  one  monk,  ^^  in  cella  languidorum 
deportatur^^  Another  separate  building  was  the  guest-house 
or  hospice,  presided  over  by  a  prepositus  or  prior  hospitiutn^ 
answering  to  the  fir  thigis  or  man  of  hospitality  in  the  Irish 
monasteries.  This  was  the  post  held  by  Cuthberht  before  he 
became  abbot.* 

9  .  .  .  5. — There  is  a  church  dedicated  to  Eata  at  Attingham 
or  Atcham  on  the  Severn,  the  birthplace  of  Ordericus  Vitalis, 
which  perhaps  took  its  name  from  the  Saint. 

18  .  .  .  24. — It  was  later  that  the  Lindisfarne  brotherhood 
incorporated  the  Benedictine  Rule  with  their  own.  '"''Nobis 
regularem  vitani  primuin  componens  constituit  quam  usque  hodie 
cum  regula  Benedicti  observamus.'"  ^ 

^^  ,  ,  ,  18. — The  feast-day  of  St.  Cuthberht  was  held  at 
Lindisfarne  and  was  attended  in  later  times  by  a  great  crowd  of 
lay-people  and  clerics,  and  not  only  filled  the  church  but  all  the 
approaches  and  the  churchyard ;  and  after  the  service  they  sat 

^  Gesta  Regtim,  i.  58.  ^  See  Stubbs's  Dunstan,  p.  52. 

3  Stubbs's  Dimstan,  p.  147.  ^  See  Plummer,  i.  xxvi-xxix. 

^  "  Vit.  St.  Cuthberhti,"  Bede  op.  min.,  p.  271. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  385 

together  at  the  tables  for  their  food,  regardless  of  their  station 
or  rank.  Reginald  tells  a  pitiful  story  of  the  stress  to  which 
the  dapifer  Gospatric  was  put  to  feed  them,  and  how  by  a  miracle 
St.  Cuthberht  came  to  the  rescue  and  supplied  the  necessary 
bread,  which  consisted  of  those  oaten  spread-out  cakes  which 
we  know  in  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire.  "  Erant  tamen^^^  says 
Reginald,  '''' quidam  pa7ium  pertenues^  et  i?i  sui  latitudine  profusi^ 
et  quasi  de  avenae  specici  similitudine  coopertiy  ^ 

Reginald  also  tells  an  interesting  story  about  Norham 
Church,  in  which  was  preserved  a  cross  made  of  the  wood  of  a 
table  upon  which  St.  Cuthberht  had  been  in  the  habit  of  eating 
his  meals,  and  upon  which  the  whole  neighbourhood  were 
accustomed  to  swear  when  an  oath  was  required ;  and  he 
mentions  a  man  who  was  charged  with  a  crime  and  had  pro- 
fessed his  innocence  before  a  proper  tribunal,  and  his  readiness 
to  wage  battle  in  proof  of  his  assertion.  In  this  trial  he  was, 
in  fact,  transfixed  by  a  lance.  As  a  preliminary  step  he  went 
to  swear  on  the  cross  at  his  parish  church  of  Norham. ^ 

72  .  .  .  15. — This  platform  inside  the  coffin  was  put  there 
to  prevent  the  damp  from  injuring  the  remains,  and  its  surface 
was  impregnated  with  wax.  The  process  is  thus  described  by 
Reginald :  "  Tabulam  ligneam  componunt,  .  .  .  quatn  de  mane 
usque  ad  vespera?n  secus  torridos  ig?ies  calefactam,  liquentibus  ceris 
inficiunt^  et  quantum  possibile  erat^  eajn  tali  liquoris  dulcedine 
infuderuntr  ^ 

118  ..  .  3. — At  Durham  there  still  remain  two  other  books 
which  seem  to  be  of  a  date  coeval  with  Cuthberht  (A,  ii.  16 
and  A,  n.  17),  the  former  containing  the  four  Gospels,  and 
the  latter  John,  Luke,  and  Mark.  MS.  A,  ii.  22  contains  at  the 
beginning  and  end  portions  of  a  still  older  copy  of  the  Gospels. 

The  most  ancient  MS.  in  the  Library,  however,  is  A,  iv.  19, 
a  Latin  Ritual  with  an  interlinear  Anglian  version  added  at  a 
later  time,  which  Wanley  ascertained  to  be  in  the  same  hand- 
writing as  that  in  the  Lindisfarne  Gospels,  namely,  Aldred  the 
priest.  It  was  known  as  the  Prayer-book  of  Alfred  the 
Great,  doubtless,  as  Raine  says,  from  a  mistake  between 
the  names  Alfred  and  Aldred.  This  book  contains  additions  in 
another  hand,  and  is  described  in  Rud's   Cat.  of  the  Durham 

186  ..  .   18. — In   Murray's   Guide  to   Kent  it   is   said  that 

^  Op.  cit.  ch.  xxii.  ^  Reginald,  ch.  Ivii.  ^  Op.  cit.  ch.  xl, 

*  See  Raine,  St.  Cuthberht^  34  and  35,  note. 
VOL.  III. — 25 


386  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

fragments  of  St.  Eanswitha's  monastery  still  remain  in  the 
vicarage  garden  at  Folkestone.  Miss  Arnold-Forster  says  the 
town  seal  still  bears  a  figure  of  the  Saint  carrying  two  fish  in  a 
half  loop.  She  adds  that  a  second  dedication  to  the  Saint  occurs 
in  the  dedication  of  a  little  church  at  Brenzett,  between  Rye 
and  Romney.i 

195  .  .  .  36. — In  MS.  D  of  the  Historia  Ecclesiastica  of 
Bede,  in  a  fifteenth-century  hand,  Heiu  is  written  above  Bega  as 
if  they  were  synonyms.  Leland  and  others  also  identify  them. 
In  the  margin  we  read:  ^^  Sta.  Bega  a?iglice  Seynt  Bee  qui  locus 
ja7n  est  cella  monasterie  Stae.  Marie  Ebor,^''  The  twelfth-century 
Life  of  the  saint  is  MS.  Cott.  Faust.  B,  iv.  Its  author  confesses 
he  had  no  reliable  materials  for  the  Life  save  the  notice  of  the 
miracles  performed  by  her  remains. 

212  ..  .  20.  —  According  to  Rudborne  there  was  also 
buried  at  Repton,  Kynehardus,  the  brother  of  Sigeberht,  King 
of  the  West  Saxons.^ 

The  first  Mercian  King  recorded  to  have  been  buried  at 
Repton  was  ^thelbald,  who,  according  to  "  The  Continuation  of 
Bede,"  our  best  authority,  died  in  757.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle  and,  following  it,  Florence  put  it  in  750,  and  the  latter 
says  he  died  at  Secceswald  (Seckington,  in  Warwickshire)  and  was 
buried  at  Repton.  Repton  was  captured  by  the  Danes  in  874, 
when  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  as  usual  they  utterly  ruined  the 
church  and  its  contents.  The  former  was  rebuilt  in  the  reign  of 
Eadgar.  A  discussion  has  arisen  in  regard  to  its  crypt,  as  to 
whether  it  does  not  belong  wholly  or  in  part  to  the  earlier 
building. 

I  think  the  views  of  Mr.  Irving  and  Dr.  Cox  in  regard  to  it 
will  prevail.  Dr.  Cox  holds  (Notes  on  the  Churches  of  Derby- 
shire) that  the  vault  had  not  been  originally  groined  and  vaulted, 
and  that  the  outer  walls  with  their  nearly  obliterated  chapels  or 
recesses  and  their  remarkable  cornice  belong  to  the  old  lower 
chancel  or  crypt  of  the  celebrated  Repton  monastery,  destroyed 
by  the  Danes  in  874,  while  the  groin  and  its  sustaining  pillars 
belong  to  Eadgar's  time,  when  the  church  was  re-dedicated  to 
St.  Wistan,  who  lived  in  the  second  half  of  the  eighth  century. 
Cnut  transferred  his  relics  from  Repton  to  Evesham.^  Others 
have  argued  that  the  crypt  belongs  entirely  to  Eadgar's  reign. 

I  have  contented  myself  with  giving  a  ground  plan  of  the 
crypt  and  a  view  of  the  columns. 

^  Op,  cit.  ii.  357.         "^  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  196.         ^  Hardy,  Cat.,  i.  473. 


nepsont 


iic 


I     I 


P  M   M   M   ^T 


Plan  of  the  Cryi-t  at  Kepton. 

[JW.  III.,  facing: t>.  3S6 


^•*:-*^«,*ijs^HUf«^^^- 


-^v 
>^i»%- 


"■i-4^  *=*■ 


4-  i-f~**^4^' 


'«^^'^- 


Interior  of  the  East  End  of  the  Church  at  Corbriixie. 


[I'o/.  If  I., /acini;  p.  386. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  387 

There  is  another  church  which  several  good  judges  have 
considered  to  be  at  least  in  part  of  an  early  Saxon  date,  namely, 
that  of  Saint  Andrew  at  Corbridge.  It  is  first  definitely  men- 
tioned by  Simeon  of  Durham  under  the  year  786. ^  Mr.  Hodges, 
in  his  paper  on  "The  Pre-Conquest  Churches  of  Northumbria,"  2 
has  discussed  its  date  with  considerable  skill.  The  original  church 
consisted  of  a  nave  with  a  porticus  or  chapel  porch  at  the  west 
end,  over  which  latter  was  in  later  times  built  the  modern  tower. 
Mr.  Hodges  thinks  it  was  a  foundation  of  St.  Wilfrid's,  and 
that  a  portion  of  the  walls  of  his  church  still  remain. 

213  ..  .  31. — Thomas  of  Ely  says  of  St.  Huna  :  ^'^  qui  de 
ordifie  Mo?iachoru7n  et  Presbiter  S.  /Etheldredae  fuisse  perhibetiir.^'' 
He  performed  the  funeral  service  over  his  mistress  and  after, 
wards  retired  to  a  little  island  in  the  marshes  called  Huneya 
after  him.  There  he  lived  the  life  of  an  anchorite,  and  miracles 
were  performed  at  his  grave.^  His  stone  coffin  was  afterwards 
broken  open,  and  his  remains  were  abstracted  and  taken  to  Ely. 

213  ..  .  34. — In  the  Historia  Eliensis  Ely  is  described  as 
seven  miles  long  from  "  Cotingelade "  to  "  Litleporte "  or  to 
Abbotesdelf,  then  called  Biscopesdelf,  and  in  breadth  four  miles 
from  Cherchewere  to  the  lake  of  Straham  {ad  7nare  de  Straham)  \ 
with  the  adjacent  islands  {cum  insults  per  girum)  beside  {Dudin- 
tone)^  which  was  outside  the  island,  in  which  were  villulae  and 
woods  with  their  appendent  islanders,  together  with  some  rich 
pasture  lands. 

Attached  to  the  island  was  also  Chateriz,  where  there  was  an 
abbey  of  nuns,  the  district  {pagus)  of  Witleseya,  i.e.  Whittle- 
sea,  and  the  monks'  abbey  of  Thorneia,  i.e.  Thorney.  The 
island  formed  two  Hundreds  in  the  county  of  Cambridge. 
Its  bounds  were  from  the  middle  of  the  bridge  of  Detro  as  far  as 
Upwere,  and  from  Biscopesdelf  as  far  as  the  river  by  Burch  {i.e. 
Peterborough)  which  is  called  Nen,  in  the  province  of  the  Gyrvii.^ 

214  ..  .  16. — At  Cratendune,  when  Thomas  of  Ely  wrote, ^ 
was  an  old  site  (probably  Roman)  where  iron  utensils  and  royal 
money  had  been  found.  At  Ely  yEtheldrytha  built  a  house 
and  then  a  town.  There  St.  Augustine  was  reputed  to  have 
built  a  church  dedicated  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  with  the  help 
of  ^thelberht.  It  was  said  to  have  been  destroyed  under 
Penda.     The  story  is  doubtless  a  fable. 

^  Gesta  Reguni. 

^Reliquary,  893.  ^  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  600. 

*  See  Wharton,  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  xli.  ^  See  Wharton,  xli.  and  xlii. 


388  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

218  ..  .  37. — Stukeley  says  that  the  Rev.  J.  Bentham,  the 
historian  of  Ely,  copied  the  inscription  at  Haddenham  when  a 
lad  at  Cambridge.  It  then  formed  the  foot  of  a  cross,  and 
ended  with  the  word  Amen.^ 

219  ..  .  17. — The  name  of  the  isle  of  Sheppey,  or  Sheep's 
Island,  was  a  translation  of  its  former  name  Malata,  from  the 
British  molhty  a  sheep,  whence  the  French  mouton. 

220  ..  .  25. — Weedon  is  described  as  St.  Werburgh's 
palace,  which  she  converted  into  a  nunnery.  It  is  now  called 
Weedon-on-the-Street,  or  Wedon  Bee.  Her  steward,  having  been 
cruel  to  her  servant  named  Ailwoth,  was  punished.  He  after- 
wards became  a  hermit,  and  was  murdered  and  buried  at  Stowe, 
near  Buccabrok. 

230  .  .  .  20. — LuUus  sent  to  Abbess  Cyneburga  a  present  of 
pepper  and  cinnamon.  He  also  sent  to  Eadburga,  Abbess  of 
Thanet,  ^^  StoracisQ)  et  ctnnamomt  partem  aliquamP^  Theophy- 
lactus,  Archdeacon  of  Rome,  sent  to  Boniface  some  cinnamon, 
"  costum "  (?  a  kind  of  pepper),  and  incense  as  a  present  to 
Archbishop  Boniface. 

Since  the  first  Appendix  to  this  volume  was  written,  the 
important  work  of  Miss  Arnold-Forster  on  the  dedications  of 
English  churches  has  fallen  into  my  hands.  In  it  she  has 
discussed  the  lives  of  the  English  noble  lady  saints  in  an 
interesting  and  detailed  account.  I  propose  to  set  out  here 
such  facts  about  them  as  I  had  overlooked. 

Speaking  of  St.  Hilda,  she  points  out  that  the  church  at 
Whitby  was  not  dedicated  to  her  until  the  twelfth  century,  when 
the  great  Benedictine  monastery  whose  ruins  we  all  know  so 
well  was  founded,  and  when  it  was  dedicated  to  St.  Peter  and 
St.  Hilda.  She  adds  that  the  ring  of  Hilda  churches  round 
Whitby,  most  of  them  dating  from  the  Norman  period,  were 
probably  possessions  of  the  Benedictine  House.  Among  them 
was  an  old  chapel  with  a  monastic  cemetery  which  once  stood  at 
Middlesbrough,  but  has  entirely  disappeared.  Near  Whitby  is 
the  village  of  Hinderwell,  once  called  Hilderwell,  after  the  Saint. 
Irekirk,  in  Cumberland,  where  an  early  forest  hermitage  once 
existed,  is  said  to  be  a  corruption  of  Hildkirk.  Another  church 
at  Lucker,  in  Northumberland,  bears  the  Saint's  name.  In  York- 
shire are  nine  ancient  dedications  to  her  besides  the  Abbey  of 

^  Liber  Eliensis,  i.  8,  note. 
^  Mon.  Mag.y  iio. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  389 

Whitby ;  while  at  South  Shields  and  Hartlepool  are  two  other 
dedications.^ 

Of  St.  ^bbe,  Miss  Arnold -Forster  says,  inter  alia, 
that  her  fondness  for  building  on  headlands,  or  "  nabs  "  as  they 
are  called  in  the  North  country  dialect,  has  been  noted  in  a  local 
rhyme  showing  the  different  situations  favoured  by  the  different 
Northern  saints,  thus  : — 

•'St.  Abb,  St.  Helen,  and  St.  Bey  (Bee), 
They  a'  built  kirks  whilk  be  near  to  the  sea  : 
St.  Abb's  upon  the  nabs, 
St.  Helen's  on  the  lea, 
St.  Bey's  upon  the  Dunbar  sands 
Stands  nearest  to  the  sea." 

St.  Abbe's  oldest  foundation  was  doubtless  the  church  at 
Ebchester,  on  the  Derwent,  at  the  boundary  line  between 
Northumberland  and  Durham,  named  after  her  and  built  in 
the  Roman  Castrum  in  which  she  planted  it.  At  Ferry  Hill, 
south  of  Durham,  was  a  ruined  chapel  belonging  to  the  monks 
of  Durham,  doubtless  built  after  the  translation  of  the  Saint  and 
dedicated  to  her  and  St.  Nicholas.  At  Beadness,  on  the 
Northumberland  coast,  not  far  from  Bamburgh,  is  a  headland 
called  Ebb's  Nook,  where  was  a  cell  of  the  Coldingham 
Monastery.  In  far-off  Oxford  is  a  church  dedicated  to  St.  ^bbe 
which  is  mentioned  as  early  as  1005.  Anthony  k  Wood  notes 
its  dedication  feast  as  being  on  15th  October.  Another  distant 
memorial  of  her  is  a  now-desecrated  church  at  Shelswell, 
Buckinghamshire,  also  dedicated  to  her.^ 

The  next  Abbess  to  be  recalled  is  St.  Milburga.^  Like  St. 
Werburga,  she  was  credited  with  protecting  the  crops  against 
depredation  by  wild  geese,  etc.  Hence  a  mediaeval  rhyme 
quoted  by  Mr.  E.  P.  Brock  in  the  British  Arch,  Journal, 
vol.  xli.,  says  : — 

*'  If  old  dame  Mil  will  our  fields  look  over, 
Safe  will  be  corn  and  grass  and  clover ; 
But  if  the  old  dame  is  gone  fast  to  sleep, 
Woe  to  our  corn,  grass,  clover,  and  sheep." 

A  goose  was  the  distinctive  emblem  of  St.  Milburga. 

Besides  those  I  have  mentioned  earlier,"*  Miss  Arnold-Forster 
speaks  of  a  church  dedicated  to  her  across  the  Welsh  border  at 

^  Op.  cit.  ii.  396-401.  '  lb.  291-295. 

'  Vide  ante,  iii.  210-212.  **  Ante,  p.  211. 


390  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Llairvello,  in  Brecknockshire.  A  colony  of  Cluniac  monks  went 
from  Wenlock  to  Paisley  and  built  a  church  in  the  latter  place  to 
her  memory.^ 

Miss    Arnold-Forster,    in    describing   the    various    churches 
dedicated    to    St.    Audrey,    especially   recalls    the   magnificent 
series    of    carvings    in    the   capitals   of    the    pillars    supporting 
the  great  lantern  at   Ely,  representing  scenes  in  the  life  of  its 
patron  saint,  who  is  also  represented  in  a  stained-glass  window 
in   the    same    place,   which,   like  the  carvings  just  mentioned, 
date   from    the  twelfth   century.     She   mentions   twelve  dedica- 
tions altogether  as  recording  the  Saint,  i.e.  the  parish  of  West 
Quantoxhead,  in  Somersetshire,  otherwise  known  as  St.  Audries ; 
Hyssington,  in  Shropshire ;  and  Horley,  in  Oxfordshire  ;  while  the 
rest  are  either  in  East   Anglia  or  have  a  special  tie  with  Ely. 
Formerly  there  were  churches  commemorating  her  at  Thetford 
in  Norfolk,  and  Histon  in  Cambridgeshire ;  a  church  at  Norwich, 
another  at  Mundham,  in  Norfolk  ;  Bishops  Hatfield,  in  Hertford- 
shire, connected  with  Ely  since  King  Eadgar's  time ;  Totteridge, 
in    the   same   county ;    West    Halton,  in    Lincolnshire,  on    the 
Humber  near  Wintringham,  identified  by  Bentham  in  his  Ely 
with  the  Alftham  of  the  legend.     In  the  old  chapel  dedicated  to 
the  Saint  in  Ely  Place,  Holborn  (a  relic  of  the  London  palace  of 
the  Bishops  of  Ely,  and  now  a  Roman  Catholic  church),  is  still 
exhibited   a   reliquary    professing  to  contain    a  portion    of  the 
incorruptible  hand  of  the  Saint,  reported  to   have  been  found 
a  century  ago  in  an  old  farmhouse  belonging  to  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk.2 

I  forgot  to  mention  (which  was  a  real  oversight)  that  St. 
Audrey,  whose  life  was  hardly  exemplary,  is  commemorated  in 
the  English  Calendar  in  the  Prayer  Book  on  the  17  th  October, 
being  the  only  English  female  saint  so  honoured. 

Of  St.  Sexburga's  church  at  Sheppey,  Miss  Arnold-Forster 
says  it  was  specially  known  as  "  the  Minster,"  and  more  particularly 
as  Minster  in  Sheppey,  to  distinguish  it  from  St.  Mildred's 
Minster  in  Thanet.  In  Henry  the  Second's  reign  it  was  re- 
dedicated  to  SS.  Mary  and  Sexburga. 

In  regard  to  St.  Werburga's  churches,  Miss  Arnold-Forster 
identifies  Trickingham  with  the  modern  Trentham.  She  adds 
to  the  dedications  mentioned  by  me,  Spondon  in  Derbyshire, 
where  the  church  is  dedicated  to  her  jointly  with  the  Virgin. 
Warburton  in  Cheshire,  it  is  suggested,  is  a  corruption  of 
^  Miss  Arnold-Forster,  op.  cit.  ii.  379-381.  *  lb.  363-369. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  391 

VVerburgh's  Town.  In  King  John's  time  a  monastery  existed 
there  dedicated  to  God  and  SS.  Mary  and  Werburgh.  The  name 
of  St.  Werburga  is  of  course  most  closely  connected  with  Chester, 
where  William  of  Malmesbury  says  she  and  her  mother  Ermenilda 
were  both  held  in  high  honour.  Her  original  monastery  there  was 
destroyed  by  the  Danes  and  apparently  rebuilt  by  Eadgar.  This 
later  foundation  was  dedicated  to  SS.  Werburgh  and  Oswald. 
In  the  time  of  William  Rufus,  regular  Benedictine  Canons  were 
substituted  for  some  very  irregular  ones  who  were  there  before.^ 
It  was  then  apparently  that  the  double  dedication  came  to  an 
end  and  each  of  the  Saints  had  a  separate  church.  St.  Oswald's 
is  still  one  of  the  parish  churches  of  the  city,  while  the  Abbey 
Church  continued  to  be  dedicated  to  St.  Werburga  till  Henry 
the  Eighth  in  1520  rededicated  it  to  Christ  and  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary.^ 

Miss  Arnold-Forster  says  of  St.  Mildred,  that  a  raised  green 
path  in  a  wooded  lane  near  Minster  is  still  called  St.  Mildred's 
Lynd.  Churches  dedicated  to  her  once  existed  at  Oxford  and 
Ipswich,  at  Whippingham  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  in  the  City 
of  London,  where  two  churches  were  known  as  St.  Mildred, 
Bread  Street,  and  St.  Mildred,  Poultry.  Her  churches  in  Kent 
are  at  Canterbury,  Tenterden,  Nurstead,  and  Preston.^ 

In  regard  to  ^thelburga,  the  Abbess  of  Barking  in  Essex, 
and  the  doubts  of  Bishop  Stubbs  about  her  having  been  the  same 
person  as  the  saint  to  whom  St.  ^thelburga's  Church  in 
Bishopsgate  is  dedicated,  Miss  Arnold-Forster  points  out  the  fact 
of  the  proximity  of  this  church  to  All  Hallows,  Barking,  a  well- 
known  City  possession  of  the  great  monastic  house  down  in 
Essex.  Its  situation  in  "  Bishopsgate,"  the  very  gate  of  the 
City  supposed  to  have  been  erected  by  Bishop  Eorconwald,  and 
to  have  taken  its  name  from  him,  strengthen  the  case  in  favour 
of  the  Abbess  of  Barking.^ 

Miss  Arnold-Forster  devotes  some  pages  to  what  I  deem  the 
hopeless  task  of  trying  to  resuscitate  the  personality  of  St.  Osyth, 
whom  I  left  out  of  my  memoir  on  the  high-born  Saxon  ladies  who 
became  nuns.  I  did  so  because  I  could  make  neither  head  nor 
tail  of  the  strange  mass  of  contradictions  involved  in  her  whole 
story,  and  which  have  not  been  removed  by  her  champion's 
chivalrous  pleading.  The  case  against  her  by  Bishop  Stubbs 
seems  to  me  overwhelming.     She  is  first  named  in  Malmesbury's 

*  Malmesbury,  ii.  13.  2  gee  Arnold-Forster,  op.  cit.  ii.  377. 

3  lb.  p.  362.  *  Op.  cit.  ii.  384. 


392  GOLDEN  DAYS  OF  EARLY  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

Gesta  Pontificum^  which  was  completed  in  1125,  who  mentions 
Cic  (now  Chick)  as  the  resting-place  of  "the  blessed  Osytha,  a 
virgin  famous  for  miracles."  Her  wonderful  "  Life"  occurred  in 
a  lost  work  by  John  of  Tinemouth  called  Sanctilogium,  written 
about  1366,  whence  Capgrave  copied  it.  It  was  taken  by  John 
of  Tinemouth  from  an  anonymous  life  written  later  than 
Maurice,  Bishop  of  London,  who  was  mentioned  in  it  and  who 
flourished  1086-1108.  We  therefore  know  of  no  authority 
at  all  for  her  existence  before  the  twelfth  century.  Its  contents 
are  literally  impossible  to  reconcile  with  the  facts  of  Anglo-Saxon 
history,  except  by  forsaking  the  methods  of  historical  criticism. 
They  are  admirably  analysed  by  Stubbs,  who  says  of  them,  inter 
alia:  "The  Vita  is  burdened  with  prodigies.  .  .  .  The  story 
labours  under  incurable  anachronisms  defying  all  Suysken's  art.^ 
.  .  .  The  saint  is  just  a  name  imposed  on  the  place  to  create 
a  fictitious  sanctity  for  Bishop  Richards'  foundation.  He  ruled 
from  H08  to  1 1 28." 

By  inadvertence  I  have  overlooked  a  story  told  by  Bede  in 
the  fourteenth  chapter  of  the  fifth  book  of  his  Historia  Ecclesi- 
astical which  deserves  to  be  reported  since  it  presents  a  phase  of 
the  incredible  bigotry  which  then  and  still  dominates  some  of 
the  teachers  of  men.  Bede  says  he  knew  "a  brother"  whom  he 
wished  he  had  not  known,  and  who  was  a  smith  {fabrile  arte 
singularis).  He  did  not  care  to  mention  his  name,  but  he  lived 
in  a  noble  monastery,  where  he  passed  his  days  ignobly.  Although 
he  had  often  been  reproved  and  admonished  by  the  elders  and 
brothers  of  the  place,  he  took  no  heed  of  them,  and  they  put  up 
with  him  patiently,  for  he  was  an  excellent  carpenter.  He  was 
an  habitual  drunkard  and  dissolute  in  other  ways,  and  instead  of 
going  to  church  to  sing  and  pray  and  hear  the  Word  of  Life  with 
the  brethren,  used  to  spend  his  time  day  and  night  in  the  work- 
shop. Presently  he  fell  sick,  and  being  at  his  latter  end,  summoned 
the  brethren,  and  reported  to  them  with  much  lamentation,  and 
like  one  damned,  that  he  had  seen  hell  open  and  Satan  at  the 
bottom  of  the  pit,  with  Caiaphas  and  others  who  had  slain  our 
Lord,  and  had  been  condemned  to  avenging  flames.  "  There," 
as  he  said,  "  I  saw  a  place  of  eternal  perdition  prepared  for  me." 
Thereupon  the  brethren  again  pressed  him  to  repent  while  he 
was  in  the  flesh.     He  replied  that  he  had  no  time  now  to  change 

^  i.e.  the  art  of  its  very  ingenious  editor  in  the  Ada  Sanctorum  for  October, 
vol.  iii.  p.  936. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  NOTES  393 

his  life,  for  he  had  seen  his  judgment  accomplished.  He  there- 
upon died  without  the  saving  viaticum  {sine  viatico  salutis)^ 
was  buried  in  the  remotest  part  of  the  cemetery,  and  no  one 
dared  to  say  masses,  or  sing  psalms,  or  even  to  pray  for  him. 
This  unhappy  wretch,  says  Bede,  saw  his  own  person  among  the 
fiends,  so  that  despairing  of  salvation  he  might  die  the  more 
miserably,  and  so  that  many  among  the  living  might  be  saved  by 
contemplating  his  fate.  "This  happened  lately,"  he  adds,  "in 
the  province  of  the  Bernicians,  and  being  reported  far  and  wide, 
induced  many  to  abandon  their  sins,  which  we  hope  may  also  be 
the  result  of  our  narrative." 

It  is  clear  that  the  tendency  to  deal  harshly  with  the  im- 
penitent was  growing.  Prayers  for  them,  according  to  Ramsay, 
were  allowed  in  the  early  Church,  but  were  forbidden  in  Theo- 
dore's time. 


INDEX 


Aachen,  ii.  261,  262. 

Abba's  hill,  ii.  120. 

Abbendun,  see  Abingdon. 

Abbesses,  lay,  i.  Ii. 

Abbon,  St.,  ii.  264. 

Abbot,  head  of  Lindisfarne,  i,  25  :  of 
several  monasteries,  i.  xlii. 

Abbots,  iii.  253,  254,  261  :  appointed 
by  Wilfrid,  ii.  233,  250  :  attendance 
at  synods,  iii.  250 :  elected  by 
monks,  i.  cxliii,  cxliv  :  Irish,  hered- 
itary caste,  i.  xxviii,  18,  19  :  of 
high  birth,  ii.  303 ;  iii.  366 :  re- 
lated to  founders,  iii.  349  :  rival,  of 
Lindisfarne,  iii.  137. 

Abd  Almalik,  Khalif,  ii.  326,  339. 

Abdications,  ii.  374,  377,  421,  422, 
426,  429,  432. 

Abercorn  (/Ebbercurnig),  ii.  103, 
104,  106,  III  ;  iii.  199,  311,  320. 

Abernethy,  ii.  40. 

Abingdon,  i.  cxi,  cxliv-cxlvi  ;  ii. 
1 19-123,  428,  432,  442,  451,  501  ; 
iii.  364. 

Abingdon  Abbey  Annals^  i.  cxv. 

Abortion,  iii.  248. 

Abraham,  Abbot,  i.  172. 

Abson,  ii.  499. 

Abstinence,  ii.  408. 

Abu   Sarh,    Governor    of    Egypt,    i. 

231. 
Abundantius,  Bishop  of  Palermo,  ii. 

Abyssinians,  ii.  82. 

Acca(Acta,  Ecce), Bishop  of  Hexham, 
i.  xc,  xciii,  xcviii,  ex,  cxl,  cliii, 
clxxxvi,  65,  368  ;  ii.  117,203,  215, 
234,  240,  402,  511,  515  ;  iii.  10, 
38,  140-148,  312,  342:  crosses,  ii. 
Ill  ;  iii.  144-147. 

Acha,  i.  75  ;  iii.  204,  349. 

Acircius,  see  Aldfrid,  King. 

Ackworth,  iii.  59. 

Acrostic,  iii.  233. 

Acta,  see  Acca. 

Acta  Sanctorum^  i.  clxxvi. 


Actors,  ii.  336. 
Adalbert,  St.,  i.  74. 
Adalgisl,  major-domo,  i.  300,  301. 
Adam  of  Stamford,  iii.  78. 
Adamnan,  i.  xcvi,  ex  ;  ii.    107,  490  ; 
iii.    137,    490  :  his  friendship  with 

Aldfrid,  ii.  154-156,  308,  310  :  Life 

of  St.  Colufnba,  i.  clxxvi. 
Adamnan,  monk  of  Coldingham,    i. 

Ixii ;  iii.  206. 
Adana,  iii.  308. 
Adbaruse,  see  Barrow. 
Adbert,  i.  cliii. 
Adda,  i.  123  ;  iii.  201. 
Addi,  of  North  Burton,  iii.  157. 
Addingham,  i.  133, 
Addula,  iii.  201. 
Adela,  Abbess,  i.  cxiv. 
Adelard,  sub-regulus,  i.  cxliii,  cliv. 
Adeodatus,  Bishop  of  Leucorum,  ii, 

72. 
Adeodatus,    Pope,    i.    cxxvi,  clxxxi ; 

ii.  64  ;  iii.  348. 
Adestancastre,      Adescancastre,     see 

Exeter. 
Ad  Murum,  see  Walbottle. 
Adolana,  iii.  201. 
Adon,  i.  297. 
Adrian,  see  Hadrian. 
Adtwifyrdi,  ii.  105. 
Adulf,  Bishop  of  Utrecht,  i.  137. 
Adulf,    King    of    East     Anglia,     see 

Aldwulf. 
Adultery,  iii.  247,  248,  257,  261. 
iEanfleda,  Queen,  i.  378  ;  iii.  193. 
iEbba  (iEbbe,  Eabbe,  Ebba),  St.,  i. 

cxxxv-cxxxvii,  67  ;  ii.  37,  99,  100, 

126;  iii.   12,   14,  70,  86,  204-207, 

346,  364,  389. 
vEbbercurnig,  see  Abercorn. 
Mcci,  Bishop  of  Dunwich,  i.  clxxxiv, 

310;  ii.  419. 
.^dbert,  i.  cliii. 
./Edbryht,  see  Eadberht. 
.(Eddi  (Heddi,  Stephen),  i.  cviii,  ex, 

166,  217,  350,  353,  359,  370,  375, 
395 


396 


INDEX 


378,  379,  3^0,  383  ;  iii.  143  :  as  an 

authority,  iii.  346. 
y^delhun,  ii.  133. 
^dgils,  iii.  207. 
JEdh  Finn,  Prince  of  Connaught,  i. 

lOI. 

-(^dhan,  Bishop  of  Magheo,  i.  198. 

iEdwin  (Edwine),  King  of  Northum- 
bria  and  Saint,  i.  xxvii,  cvi,  cxxv, 
clxxxiii,  3-6,  9,  II,  34,  41,  47-49, 

54,  55.  74-76,  131,   133,  157,  226, 
240;  li.  382,  418,  500  ;  iii.  3,  185- 

188,  193,  200,  201,  204,  205,  303, 

349.  350- 
>Edwine,  Bishop  of  Mayo,  i.  198. 
^d-,  see  also  ^th-,  Ed-,  and  Ead-. 
yEga,  major-domo,  i.  294,  300,  301. 
^gelric,  see  yEthelric. 
iEgfrid,  King  of  the  Humbroneutii,  i. 

clxvi. 
-^Ifdrytha,  ii.  494. 
riffled,  Queen,  iii.  98. 
^Ifguin,  see  ^Ifwine. 
^Ifleda  (rElfled,  Elfled),  Abbess  of 

Whitby,  i.  cxiv ;  ii.  107,  108,  157, 

219,  223,    225,   226,   506  ;  iii.   87, 

189,  193,  197-203,  265,  364. 
-/Elfred,  i.  clxii. 

yElfric,  father  of  Osric,  i.  5. 
^Ifric,  Archbishop  of  York,  iii.  163. 
-^Ifric,  poet,  i.  cxiii,    101-107,    no, 

112,  242,  243;  iii.  130. 
^Ifrid  Westou  (Westoue,  Westowe), 

i.  85  ;  iii.  9,  65,  70. 
^Ifsige,  Abbot,  iii.  209. 
.Elfthritha       (^Ifthrytha,       Elfrida, 

Elfthritha),  Abbess  of  Repton,  ii. 

408  ;  iii.  212. 
iElfwine  (^Ifguin,  Ailuine),   son   of 

Oswy,  i.  226,  227,  y]^  ;  ii.  42,  49, 

50,  55;  "i.  349,  358. 
-^Ifwinsford,  ii.  41. 

^Ifwold,    King  of  East   Angles,   i. 

cxi. 
^"a,  i.  75,  79. 
Aelm,  i,  332. 

^Ired  of  Rievaulx,  see  Ailred. 
^Istan,  Abbot,  iii.  228. 
^ona,  i.  217,  383. 
-(Eonfleda,  Queen,  see  Eanfleda. 
^sc,  river,  see  Exe. 
yEscesdune,  see  Ashdown. 
yEsculf,  Bishop  of  Dunwich,  ii.  419. 
^scwine.  King  of  Wessex,  i.  clxxxiii ; 

ii-  32,  35,  50,  118,  119. 
-^stune,  i.  332. 
Aet-Austin,  i.  civi. 
Aet  Bearwe,  see  Barrow. 
Aet  Hoe,  i.  cxxxix  ;  see  also  Cliffe. 


.^thelbald,  King   of  Mercia,  i,  cxl, 

cliii,   clvii,    clxiv,  clxxiv,    clxxxiii, 

clxxxiv  ;    ii.   380,    381,  407,  413- 

416,  504;  iii.  367,  386. 
^thelbald,    see    Eadbald,    King    of 

Kent, 
y^ithelberga,  see  .^thelburga. 
-^thelberht.    King    of   Kent,    i.    40, 

239-242,  244,  306;  iii.  185,  387. 
^thelberht    11.,    King    of  Kent,    i. 

cxxxix  ;  ii.  358. 
^thelberht,    son   of    Eormenred,    i. 

244,  245,  247  ;  iii.  346. 
^thelberht,    son   of  Oshere,   i.   clx, 

clxiv. 
/Ethelberht,  see  also  Albert, 
^thelburga,    wife   of  King  ^dwin, 

and  nun,  i.  296  ;  iii.  185. 
^thelburga  (Pledilburga),  St.,  Abbess 

of  Barking,  i.  cvii,   clxviii ;  ii.   34, 

42,  477;  iii.  54,  231,  232,  391. 
iEthelburga,  Abbess  of  Brie,  i.   121  ; 

iii.  224. 
i?Lthelburga  (Eadburga,  Qidilburga), 

Abbess  of  Hackness,  ii.  220 ;    iii. 

201-203,  212. 
yEthelburga,    Abbess,     daughter     of 

y^lfred,  i.  clxii. 
^thelburga  (Sexburga),  wife  of  Ini, 

i.  cliv,  civ;  ii.  427,  431,  432. 
yEthelburga(^dilburga,|Ethelburga), 

wife  of  Wihtred,  i.  cxxxvii,  clxix ; 

ii.  358. 
-^theldreda     (Audrey,     ^dilthryda, 

^theldrytha,  ^dilthrytha,   Ethel- 

thryth).  Saint  and  Queen,  i.  clxx, 

cxxxix,    121,  358,  367;  ii.  36-39, 

128,   186,  418;  iii.  64,  206,  212- 

222,    225,    347,     362,    387,    390: 

virginity  of,  ii.  36-38. 
vEtheldreda,  St.  (sister  of  Germinus), 

i.  137. 
^theldrytha.  Queen  (mythical),  i.  cl. 
/Etheldrytha,  wife  of  Athelstane,  ii. 

449. 
.^theldrytha,  see  also  yEtheldreda. 
^thelfleda.  Lady  of  the  Mercians,  i. 

64. 
^thelfleda,  St.,  iii.  88. 
iEthelfleda,  wife  of  Penda,  see  Alch- 

fleda. 
^thelfrid     (^thelfrith,      Ethelfrid), 

King  of  Bernicia,   i.  xxvii,   5  ;    ii. 

37,  509  ;  iii.  187,  204,  205,  348. 
^thelgytha.  Abbess,  iii.  207. 
^thelheard,  Archbishop,  i.  clxvi. 
vEthelheard    (^dilheard,    /Edilard), 

King,  i.  cliv,  civ,  clx,  clxiii,  clxiv ; 

ii.  501. 


INDEX 


397 


^thelhere  (Edric,  ^therric),  King  of 
East  Anglia,  i.  clxxxiii,  12 1,  122, 
125,  126,  128,  137,  138;  ii.  417, 
418  ;  iii.  188,  356. 

^^thelhilda  (.-Edilhild),  Abbess,  i.  70  ; 
ii.  382,  401. 

^thelhun,  ii.  401,  403,  404. 

/Ethelmund  (/Ethelmod),  son  of 
Oshere,  i.  clxiv-clxvi. 

vEthelmund,  King  of  South  Saxons,  i. 

^37- 

yEthelred  (Ethelred),  Abbot  of  Bard - 
ney,  i.  clxxv. 

i^thelred  (.Edilred,  Ethelred),  King 
of  Mercia,  i.  Iviii,  cxxvii,  cxxix, 
cxxxii,  cxxxv,  cxxxvi,  cxli,  clvi, 
clviii-clxii,  clxiv-clxvi,  clxviii, 
clxixjClxxii-clxxv,  clxxxiii,  clxxxvi, 
62-64,  227,  331  ;  ii.  32,  41,  42, 
47-49,  74,  90,  loi,  102,  125-127, 
157,  158,  161,  174,  184,  186,  202, 
205,  210,  217,  218,  357,  360,  362, 
373-375,  380-382,  384,  385,  387, 

389,  390, 392,  393,  398,  424,  425 ; 

iii.  200,  209,  220,  348,  367. 
Ethelred    il..    King  of  England,  ii. 

396. 
Ethelred  (son  of  Eormenred),  i.  244, 

245,  247  ;  iii.  346. 
yEthelric  (/Egelric,   Ailric),  i.   clxiii, 

clxiv. 
iEtheluch,  i.  clxiv. 
.^thelwalch    (/Ethelwald),    King    of 

South  Saxons,  i.  cxlvii,  327,  335  ; 

ii.  113,  117,  .133,  148;  iii.  363. 
/Ethelwald,  King  of  East  Anglia,  i. 

clxxxiii,  122,  137,  152;  ii.  417. 
Ethelwald,     see    also     /Ethelwalch, 

^thelwold. 
^thelweard,  sub-regulus,  i.  clx,  clxii- 

clxiv. 
/Ethelwine,    Bishop    of    Lindsey,    i. 

clxxxvi,  70;  ii.  382,  401,  403. 
/Ethelwine,  see  also  Edilwine. 
^thelwold,  iii.  202. 
i^thelwold    (/Ethelwald),    pupil     of 

Aldhelm,  i.  cxiv  ;  ii.  452,  458-460  ; 

iii.  370,  373,  383. 
/Ethelwold,    St.,    Bishop     of    Win- 
chester, i.  cxxxii,  cxxxiii,  46,  137  ; 

iii.  70,  104,  105,  219,  220. 
y^thelwold,    see    also     Ethelwalch, 

/Ethelwald,  Oidilwald. 
Ethel  wulf     (Ethelwulf),      King     of 

Wessex,  i.  cxlix,  245  ;  ii.  438,  496, 

497. 
yEthelwulf,    poet,    ii.    505  ;   iii.    113, 
131,    133,   135:   "De  Alsbatibus," 
i.  cxii ;  iii.  346. 


yEtherric,  see  Ethelhere. 

/Ethuin,  monk,  iii.  135. 

/Etla,  Bishop  of  Dorchester,  ii.  440, 

441  ;  iii.  193- 
/Et-Stanforda,  i.  1S3. 
/Etswinapathe,  ii.  197. 
Ette,  Abbess,  i.  cxxxix. 
Affinity,  iii.  258,  259. 
Africa,  i.  xviii,  230,  232,  234  ;  ii.  339  ; 

iii.  360. 
Agapix;  forbidden,  ii.  337. 
AgapetCE,  iii.  182. 
Agatho,  Pope,  i.  cxxvi,  cxxix,  cxxxii, 

cxxxiii,   clxxiii,   clxxxi,    186,    188; 

ii.   67-73,  76,  78,   82,  %i,  87,  89, 

158,  198,  200,  205,   206,  208-210, 

252,  343,  344  ;  iii-  I94,  358,  365. 

Agde,  Council  of,  iii.  183. 

Agen,  i.  295. 

Agesmund,  i.  cxxxvii. 

Agilberht  (Agilbert,  Albert),  Bishop 
of  Dorchester,  later  of  Paris,  i. 
clxxxiv,  184,  186,  188,  195,  210, 
249,  306,  321-326,  366;  ii.  10,  67, 
440  ;  iii.  194,  357,  358. 

Agilulf,  King  of  the  Lombards,  ii. 
267. 

Agincourt  won  by  saint's  prayers, 
iii.  166. 

Agledulfus,  see  Aldwulf. 

Agricola,  Bishop  of  Chalons,  ii.  258. 

Aidan,  King  of  Scots,  iii.  205. 

Aidan,  St.,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne, 
i.  xli,  ciii,  clxxxv,  16-34,  54,  98, 
99,  158,  199,  206,  213  ;  ii.  53,  160, 
171,  172,  512;  iii.  4,  5,  57,  106, 
186,  189,  192,  196,  197,  304,  311, 
340,  347,  351,  364:  parentage,  i. 
18,  19:  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  i.  19, 
20  :  founds  a  school,  i.  30  :  ordina- 
tion, i.  31,  32  :  knew  little  English, 
i.  32  :  character,  i.  19,  y^,  34,  95-97  : 
buries  St.  Oswald's  head,  i.  58 : 
miracles,  i.  ']6-']2>,  126 :  gives  a 
horse  to  a  beggar,  i.  81,  82  :  death, 
i.  94:  relics,  i.  94,  95,  99,  198; 
iii-    57»    352  '•    dedications,    i.    98 ; 

.^"-  35I-. 
Aidan,  priest,  iii.  70. 

Aidan,  worthies  of  the  name,  i.  19. 

Aileran  the  Wise,  i.  322. 

Ailmer,  Abbot,  i.  cxxxvii. 

Ailnoth  (Ailwoth),  iii.  222,  388. 

Ailred  (Elred)  of  Rievaulx,  iii.  36, 

65  :   Life  of  St.   ^theldryiha^   iii. 

347- 
Ailric,  see  Ethelric. 
Ailuine,  see  .Elfwine. 
Ailward,  Bishop,  ii.  395. 


398 


INDEX 


Ailwoth,  see  Ailnoth. 

Aix,  ii.  9. 

Alban,  St.,  i.  cxxxii. 

Alberht    (Alberct),    Abbot,    ii.    243, 

320. 
Alberht,     Bishop     of    Dunwich,     i. 

clxxxiv  ;  ii.  419,  420. 
Albert      (^thelberht,      Ethelberht), 
Archbishop   of    York,    i.    xci ;    ii. 
366. 
Albert,  see  also  Agilberht,  Aldberht. 
Albinus,  Abbot,  i.  xcvi,  ciii-cv,  370- 

372;  ii.  161. 
Alcester,  ii.  394. 
Alcfrid,  see  Alchfrid. 
Alchfleda  (^thelfleda),  wife  of  Penda, 

i.  123,  227  ;  iii.  356. 
Alchfrid  (Alcfrid,  Alcred,  Alchfrith), 
King  of  Deira,  i.  clxxxiii,  58,  122, 
123,   127,   134,  168,  183-186,  207, 
208,  210,  221-223,  336-338,  340, 
347,    348,    367;    ii.    41,    86,    387, 
509  ;  iii.  6,  8,  209,  350,  358. 
Alchmund,  ii.  240. 
Alcluith,  i.  Ixxxvi,  129. 
Alcred,  King,  see  Alchfrid. 
Alcuin,   St.,  i.  xxxii,   xxxix,   Ixxxix, 

xcvii,  xcviii,  cxiii,  198  ;  iii.  20. 
Aldberht  (Aldbert),  Abbot  of  Glaston- 
bury, i.  cliii ;  ii.  501. 
Aldberht,  see  also  Albert. 
Aldbryht  the  exile,  ii.  431. 
Aldfrid  (Acirius,  Aldfrith,  Ealdfrid), 
Kingof  Northumbria,  i.  Ii,  xci,  cvii, 
ex,  cxxix,  clxxxiii;  ii.  104,  149-157, 
180,  197,  205,  210,  218-222,  226, 
227,  439,  485,   502,  504,  507,  509, 
512;  iii.   122,   129,   131,  154,  198, 
199,  201,  235,  347,  356,  376 :  acces- 
sion, ii.   149:  poetry,  ii.  150,  151  : 
exile,  ii.  149-155  :  friendship  with 
Adamnan,  ii.  1 54-156:  illness  and 
death,  ii.  219,  220. 
Aldgida  (Aldgitha),  nun,  ii.  477  ;  iii. 

232. 
Aldgisl,  King  of  Friesland,  ii.  56. 
Aldgitha,  see  Aldgida. 
Aldhame,  i.  Ixxii  ;  iii.  1 19. 
Aldhelm,  St.,  i.  xxxii,  xxxiii,   xxxv, 
xxxviii,  xliii,  Ixxxviii,  xci,  cxi,  cxiii, 
cxiv,  cxxviii,  cxl-cxliv,  cxlviii,  clii, 
cliii,  clxvii,  clxviii,  clxxvi,  clxxxv  ; 
ii.   125,   153,   154,    161,   215,   364, 
365.  367,  394>  406,  442,  444,  445' 
447,   451-500;   iii-    39,  122,    184, 
233,  234,   348,  383  :    as  Abbot   of 
Malmesbury,  ii.   461-465  :    auster- 
ities, iii.   373,  374  :  authorities  for 
life,  ii.  452 :   as   Bishop   of  Sher- 


borne, ii.  490-495  :  canonisation, 
ii.  498 :  churches,  ii.  465,  493  : 
crosses,  ii.  496  :  De  Laudibus 
Virginitatis ,  ii.  477-484  ;  iii. 
373  :  death,  ii.  495,  496  :  dedica- 
tions, ii.  499 :  holy  wells,  ii. 
499  :  knowledge  and  learning,  ii. 
455  ;  iii.  368-370  :  letters  to  ^thel- 
wold  and  Winfrid,  ii.  459-461  : 
from  Cellan,  ii.  467,  468,  474,  475  : 
to  Eahfrid,  ii.  465-467  :  to  Ger- 
untius,  ii,  487-490 :  to  Haedde,  ii. 
475-477  :  to  Osgitha,  ii.  484,  485  : 
Liber  de  Septuario,  ii.  485,  486 : 
mental  gifts,  iii.  374 :  miracles,  ii. 
468,  469,  493,  495,  498-500  :  as 
musician,  ii.  456 ;  iii.  370,  371  : 
parentage,  ii.  453  :  personal  de- 
scription, iii.  370 :  poetry,  ii.  455, 
456,  462-464,  472-474  :  pupil  of 
Maidulf,  and  at  Canterbury,  ii. 
454,  457  :  pupils,  ii.  457  :  priest, 
ii.  461  :  relics,  ii.  496-499 :  style, 
ii.  466,  467  ;  iii.  371-379  :  visit  to 
Rome,  ii.  468-471. 

Aldhun  (Aldune),  Abbot,  iii.  235, 
236,  383- 

Aldhun,  Bishop  of  Durham,  iii.  64. 

Aldingburne,  i.  cxlviii. 

Aldingham,  iii.  58. 

Aldred,  iii.  no,  118,  191,  385. 

Aldred,  Archbishop,  see  Ealdred. 

Alduini,  Abbot  of  Bardney,  see  Eald- 
wine,  Bishop. 

Aldulf,  see  Aldwulf. 

Aldune,  see  Aldhun. 

Aldwin,  Bishop,  see  Ealdwine. 

Aldwin,  Prior  of  Winchcombe,  ii. 
278,  280. 

Aldwulf  (Aldulf,  Eadulf,  Ealdwulf, 
Haldwulf),  King  of  East  Anglia, 
i.  clxvi,  clxxxiii,  122,  125  ;  ii.  74, 
362,  418,  419  ;  iii.  188,  202,  203, 
212,  214,  356. 

Aldwulf,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  i.  cv, 
clxi,  clxxxv  ;  ii.  364. 

Alexander,  King  of  Scotland,  iii.  76. 

Alexander  ill.,  Pope,  iii.  339. 

Alexandria,  i.  231,  280;  ii.  80,  330, 

334. 
Alfham  (Alftham),  iii.  213,  390. 
Alfred   the  Great,  i.  ci,  cii,  80 ;   ii. 

112,    432,    439,    496;   iii.    57,   58, 

271,  369,  385- 
Alfred,  see  Alured. 
Alfrith  the  master,  see  Aluhfrith. 
Alftham,  see  Alfham. 
Alfwin,  brother  of  Ecgfrid,  ii.  127. 
Alfwin,  priest,  ii.  278. 


INDEX 


399 


Alfvvold,    Bishop   of    Sherborne,    iii. 

64. 
Alfwold,    King    of    East    Anglia,    i. 

clxxxiii,  clxxxiv  ;  ii.  419. 
Alfwold,  son  of /Ethelhere,  i.  122. 
Algeis,  iii.  352. 
Algitha,  ii.  396. 

Allegory  in  Bede's  work,  iii.  342,  343. 
Allermoor,  ii.  442. 
Almaric,  ii.  389. 
Almond,  ii.  109. 
Alms,  iii.  252. 

Alms  given  by  Oswald,  i.  33,  34. 
Aln,  river,  ii.  105,  513. 
Alne,  ii.  391. 
Alnmouth,  ii.  222,  503. 
Alnwick,  ii.  513. 
Alphege,  St.,  iii.  54. 
Alps,  i.  298. 
Alresford,  i.  clxvii. 
Alric,  Bishop,  i.  clx. 
Alric,  son  of  Wihtred,  i.  cxxxix  ;  ii. 

358. 
Alstan,  priest,  iii.  211. 
Altar,  iii.  132. 
Altar,  portable,  Cuthberht's,  iii.  100, 

lOI. 

Altar,  western  position,  i.  374. 

Altermiinster,  i.  71. 

Altham,  see  Alfham. 

Altsig,  Abbot,  i.  xcix. 

Aluhfrith  (Alfrith)  the  master,  ii.  218, 

232. 
Alured  (Alfred),  iii.  147,  207. 
Alweo,  ii.  380. 
Alwin,  see  Ealdwine. 
Amand,  St.,  i.  297. 
Ambreslege,  i.  clxii. 
Ambrose,   St.,   i.  61,    277,   377  ;    ii. 

347- 
America,  South,  i.  Ixxiii. 
Ammonites  at  Whitby,  iii.  197. 
Amounderness,  i.  378. 
Amru,  governor  of  Egypt,  i.  231. 
Amulets,  iii.  10. 

Anastasius  ii..  Emperor,  i.  clxxxii. 
Anastasius,    Patriarch   of  Jerusalem, 

ii.  81,  330. 
Anatolius,  i.  19,  192  ;  ii.  488. 
Ancaret's  Isle,  i.  333. 
Ancarig,  see  Thorney. 
Anchorites,  i.  24,  255,  258,  333,  407- 

412;  iii.  20-31,  49-51.  129,  130. 
Andelys,  iii.  183. 
Andhun,  ii.  133. 
Andreas,  son  of  Trollus,  i.  235. 
Andred  forest,  ii.  133. 
Andredesey,  ii.  443. 
Andredeswuude,  ii.  112  ;  iii.  363. 


Andrew,  Bishop  of  Crete,  ii.  342. 

Andrew,  Bishop  of  Ostia,  ii.  84. 

Andrew,  monk,  declines  bishopric, 
i-  253. 

Andronius,  St.,  iii.  29. 

Angenlabesham,  i.  clxviii. 

Anglesea,  i.  15. 

Anglians  settle  Cumbria,  i.  132,  133. 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  i.  cxvii  ;  iii. 
346. 

Anglo-Saxon  language  becomes  ob- 
solete, iii.  305. 

Angus,  King  of  Scots,  iii.  366. 

Animals  tamed  by  saints,  ii.  413 ; 
iii.  22-29,  186,  205,  206. 

Animals,  use  or  rejection  of,  iii.  256, 

257- 

Anna  (Onna),  King  of  East  Anglia,  i. 
cv,  clxxxii,  clxxxiii,  46,  114,  120- 
122,  131,  138,  152,  245,  320;  ii.  z^, 
417  ;  iii.  188,  206,  222,  224,  225, 
356. 

Annemund,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  i. 
163,  165,  167,  303. 

Annesi,  i.  256. 

"Anno  Domini"  method  of  dating, 
i.  xxxiv,  xciv,  cxxii,  cxxxiv, 
cxxxviii,  cxli,  cxlii,  cxliv,  cxlviii, 
cl-clvi,  clviii,  clxiii-clxv,  clxvii, 
clxviii,  clxxi,  clxxii,  clxxiv. 

Anthony  of  Padua,  St.,  iii.  28,  29. 

Antibes,  i.  169. 

Antioch,  ii.  68,  79-8i,  330,  334,  348, 

349- 

Antipopes,  i.  237. 

Antony,  Triumvir,  i.  58. 

Apostasy  of  English  kings,  i.  xxv, 
6,  1,  9,  95.  138.  224,  241  ;  ii.  422  ; 
iii.  357- 

Appleby,  Thomas  de.  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, iii.  41. 

Apsimar,  see  Tiberius  ill. 

Apulia,  iii.  167. 

Aquileia,  i.  238  ;  ii.  349. 

Aquino,  iii.  349. 

Aquitaine,  i.  294,  295,  300,  301. 

Arabs,  i.  229  ;  ii.  326;  iii.  315. 

Aran  Islands,  iii.  353. 

Aranmore,  iii.  353. 

Arbogast,  Bishop  of  Strassburg,  ii. 
58. 

Arcencale,  i.  clxx. 

Archarius,  Prior,  i.  87. 

Archbishop,  a  metropolitan,  ii.  9. 

Archbishop,  not  a  metropolitan,  ii.  5« 

Archbishop,  first,  of  all  England,  ii. 

159. 
Archimandrite  (Abbot),   i.  cxliv  ;  11. 

474.  494  ;  iii-  373- 


400 


INDEX 


Architecture,    i.    xxix,    clxxvi,    200- 

203  ;      ii.       258-262 ;     see      also 

Churches. 
Archiiectus,  ii.  258  ;  iii.  365. 
Arcuulf,  Bishop,  i.  xcvi,  ex;  ii.  156. 
Ardennes,  i.  297. 
Arianism  and  Arians,  i.  xix,  xx,  259- 

263  ;  ii.  2,  3,  16. 
Arithmetic,  iii.  369. 
Aries,  i.  365  ;  ii.  8,  9,  69,  361  ;  iii. 

176. 
Armado,  iii.  375. 
Armagh,  ii.  151. 
Armenia,  i.  229,   232 ;  ii.  326,  327, 

338. 
Armenians,  ii.  82,  333. 
Arno,    Archbishop    of  Salzburg,    i. 

xcix. 
Arnold-Forster,    Studies  in    Church 

Dedications^    i.    clxxvi ;    iii.    388- 

392. 
Arnulf,  i.  300. 

Art,  ecclesiastical,  ii.  262-272. 
Artemius,  ii.  342. 
Arthur,  King,  iii.  384. 
Arts  in  England,   i.  xxxvi  ;  see  also 

Architecture,     Churches,      Music, 

Painting. 
Aruald,  ii.  136. 

Aruini,  son  of  Eadwulf,  ii.  503. 
Arundel,  Lord,  i.  338. 
Ascairico,  ii.  268. 
Asceticism,  i.  xxii,  liv,  Ix-lxii,  255, 

257,    284,    285  ;    iii.  49,  50,   129, 

152,  153- 
Aserdyke,  ii.  410. 
Ash  tree,  miraculous,  iii.  213. 
Ashdown  (^scedune),  i.  327. 
Ashlafardhal,  iii.  269. 
Ashlof,  iii.  269. 
Asia,  ii.  327. 
Asia  Minor,  i.  232,  261  ;  ii.  339;  iii. 

313.  314..360. 
Aslackton,  iii.  17 1. 
Assandune,  iii.  58. 
Asterius,  Archbishop  of  Milan,  i.  35- 

37-  ..  ,    ... 

Astrology,  n.  445,  476 ;  111.  370. 

Astronomy,  ecclesiastical,  iii.  369. 
Atcham,  see  Attingham. 
Athanasius,  i.  261,  264  ;  ii.  347. 
Athelney,  iii.  58,  361. 
Athelstane,   King,    i.  xcii,    cxli ;    ii. 

449,  497  ;  iii.  63,  163-165,  221. 
Athelstane,  King  (mythical),  i.  cl. 
Athens,  i.  233,  254,  255,  287. 
Attingham  (Atcham),  iii.  384. 
Aubertus,    Bishop    of    Cambray,    i. 

116. 


Audoenus,  see  Ouen. 

Audrey,  St. ,  see  -^theldreda. 

Augustine,  St.,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, i.  xxiv,  xxxviii,  xl,  xlvii, 
cxxii,  I,  24,  31,  37,  152,  156, 
239,  252-254,  265,  289,  306;  ii. 
10,  II,  167,  169-173,  175,  293; 
iii.  214,  226,  303,  340,  359,  360, 

387. 
Augustine,    St.,    Bishop    of    Hippo, 

i.  Ixiii,  Ixxx,  182,  305,  339,  347  ; 

iii.  176. 
Augustinian  mission,  i.  xxiii-xxv. 
Aulus  Plautius,  i.  41. 
Aurelian,  Rule  of,  i.  175,  176. 
Aurelius  Victor,  i.  7. 
Austerfeld    Synod,    i.    ex ;    ii.    196- 

202,  207,  225. 
Austrasia,  i.  294,  297,  300,  301  ;  ii. 

57.  .        ,       - 

Austrasia,      Kings      of,     1.     clxxxi, 

clxxxii. 

Austria,  ii.  63. 

Autharius,  ii.  268, 

Auxerre,  ii.  9. 

Avalon,  see  Glastonbury. 

Avars,  i.  298,  299  ;  ii.  59-62. 

Aventine,  i.  237. 

Avesnes,  iii.  352. 

Avon,  river  (England),  i.  cxlii,  clvii ; 

ii.  392,  393»  395.  456. 
Avon,  river  (Linlithgow),  ii.  506. 
Axon,  E.,  i.  clxxx. 
Aycliffe,  iii.  142,  316. 
Ayrshire,  i.  36  ;  iii.  37. 

Baccanhelde,  i.  cxxxviii-cxl ;  ii.  363  ; 
see  also  Bapchild. 

Bacula,  Abbot,  ii.  235. 

Badoriceheat's,  i.  clxxii. 

Baducing,  Biscop,  see  Benedict 
Biscop. 

Baduwin,  see  Bceduuine. 

Badwin,  Presbyter  and  Abbot,  ii. 
218. 

Bajda,  i-^/?Bede. 

BcT2duuine  (Baduwin,  Badwini,  Bead- 
win,  Bedwin),  Bishop  of  Elmham, 
i.  civ,  clxxxiv,  310;  ii.  419. 

Baegia,  i.  clvii. 

Baetica,  ii.  4. 

Bagley  Wood,  ii.  120. 

Baker,  monastic,  ii.  257. 

Baldechildis,  Saint  and  Queen,  see 
Bathildis. 

Baldhelm,  priest,  iii.  13. 

Baldred  (Balred,  Bal there.  Baiter), 
St.,  i.  Ixxii,  Ixxiii ;  iii.  16,  70,  iiS, 
119,  131. 


INDEX 


401 


Baldred,  sub-regulus,  i.  cxlii,  cxliii, 

cli,  cliii,  cliv,  clxv. 
Baldwin  li.,  Emperor,  ii.  274. 
Baldwin,  goldsmith,  i.  87,  88. 
Balkans,  revolt  of  Slavs,  i.  232. 
Ballantrae,  iii.  36. 
Balred,  sa  Baldred. 
Baiter,  see  Baldred. 
Balthard,  Abbot  of  Hersfeld,  iii.  191, 

192. 
Balthere,  see  Baldred. 
Baluster  shafts  in  early  churches,  ii. 

297,  298. 
Bamberg,  i.  71,  72. 
Bamborough,  i.  9,  22,  23,  34,  58,  61, 

62,  98,  126,  130;  ii.  98,  108,  221, 

226  ;  iii.    21,    43,    351  :    saved  by 

prayer,  i.  78. 
Bamburgh,  see  Bamborough. 
Bangor,  monks  murdered,  i.  48. 
Bangor  (Ulster),  i.  321. 
Banna,  see  Penda. 
Banners  :  St.  Cuthberht's,  iii.  79-82, 

88;  St.  John  of  Beverley,  iii.  164, 

166,  168  ;  St.  Wilfrid,  iii.  166,  168. 
Bapchild,    i.    cxl ;   ii.    363 ;   see   also 

Baccanhelde. 
Baptism,  ii.    139,  335  ;  iii.  160,  241, 

244,  245,  251,  252,  256,  261. 
Bardanes  Philippicus,  ii.  341,  342. 
Bardney    (Bardeney),    i.    clxxv,    35, 

62-64,  70  ;  ii.  217,  374,  382,  401, 

411  ;  iii.  184. 
Barking,  i.  cvii,  clxxii ;  ii.  42,   421, 

439;  iii.   184,   185,  211,  229-234, 

368,  370. 
Barrow     (Adbaruse,     Aet     Bearwe, 

Barwe,    Bearwe),   Lincolnshire,    i. 

356;  ii.  33,  411. 
Bartholomew,  St.,  i.  Ix. 
Barton  on  Humber,  i.  356. 
Barton,  Richmondshire,  iii.  59,  61. 
Barwe,  see  Barrow. 
Basil,  Bishop  of  Gortyna,  ii.  78,  330. 
Basil,  St.,  i.  xxii,  xxix,  253-2S6  ;  ii. 

163,  165,    174,   175,    179;  iii.  175, 

183  :  Rule  of,  i.  267-286. 
Basil,  see  also  Bosel. 
Basques,  i.  295,  297. 
Bass,  mass  priest,  i.  317. 
Bath,  i.  clxiv,  clxv  ;  ii.  388. 
Bathildis      (Baldechildis,      Bathild), 

Queen  and  Saint,  i.  116,  166,  167, 

302,  303  ;  ii.  266 ;  iii.  223,  354. 
Baths  for  nuns,  iii.  179. 
Battersea,  i.  clxxii. 
Battle,  i.  cxxvii,  cxxxiii  ;  iii.  210. 
Bavaria,  i.  298,  299. 
Bayeux,  i.  321. 

VOL.  III. — 26 


Bay  worth,  ii.  120. 

Beadness,  iii.  389. 

Beads,  St.  Cuthberht's,  iii.  23. 

Beadufrid,  Abbot,  i.  cxlix  ;  ii.  448. 

Beadwin,  see  Bctduuine. 

Beanus,  Bishop,  i.  109,  116. 

Beardsachna,  Abbot,  iii.  367. 

Bearwe,  see  Barrow. 

Beavers  in  river  Hull,  iii.  155. 

Bebba,  i.  61. 

Beccel,  ii.  413. 

Beckbury,  iii.  211. 

Becket,  Thomas,  ii.  198,  206,  251. 

Beda,  son  of  Bubba,  i.  160. 

Bedanhefade,  ii.  35. 

Beddanburgh,  ii.  98. 

Beddanham,  i.  clxviii,  clxxii. 

Bede  and  atino  domini,  i.  xciv,  cxxii, 
cxxxiv  ;  iii.  345  :  Codex  Amiatlnus, 
iii.  321,  326,  327,  328:  and  the 
plague,  i.  Ixxiv;  ii.  307,  30S  ;  iii.  9: 
and  Wearmouth,  ii.  279  :  as  histori- 
an, i.  xxxii,  319  :  autograph  Cassio- 
dorus,  iii.  337,  340  :  charged  with 
heresy,  i.  Ixxxix  ;  ii.  229  :  death, 
ii.  508,  516  :  defends  pictures,  iii. 
365  :  Ecclesiastical  History^  i.  x, 
xcix-cxi  ;  ii.  513,  514;  iii.  345: 
epitaph  at  Jarrow,  iii.  341  :  friend- 
ship with  Acca,  iii.  142-144  :  with 
Albinus,  ii.  370,  371  :  with  Eadfrid, 
iii.  119,  120:  with  Herebald,  i. 
84  :  with  Husetberht,  iii.  150  :  his 
chair,  ii.  292,  293  :  influence  on 
Milton,  iii.  272 :  invitation  by 
Sergius,  i.  cxxix :  learns  singing, 
ii.  274  :  Lives  of  Cuthberht,  i.  xci- 
xciii  ;  iii.  63,  345  :  manuscripts,  i. 
73  ;  iii.  329  :  mistakes,  i.  225  ; 
iii.  358  :  named  by  Dante,  i.  Ixxxv  ; 
iii.  340,  341  :  on  the  monastic  life, 
i.  xliii-lv  :  poem  on  /Etheldrytha, 
iii.  217,  218  :  pupil  of  St.  John  of 
Beverley,  iii.  152  :  reason  for  writ- 
ing commentaries,  iii.  342  :  relics, 
iii.  70,  107:  "saint,"  iii.  90: 
"Venerable,"  i.  Ixxxv:  on  asceti- 
cism, i.  Ixii  :  views  on  Easter,  i. 
95.  97>  158,  200  :  views  on  hell 
and  purgatory,  iii.  130,  339:  works, 
i.  xxxiii-xxxvi,  Ixxxiii-cxi,  clxxv  ; 
iii.  342. 

Bedeuwinde,  see  Bedwyn. 

Bedlington,  iii.  59. 

Beds  of  nuns,  iii.  181. 

Bedwin,  see  Baduuine. 

Bedwyn  (Bedeuwinde),  Wilts,  ii.  119, 
121. 

Bee,  see  Bega. 


402 


INDEX 


Beer  in  monasteries,  i.  29  ;  ii.  512. 

Bees,  iii.  256. 

Bega  (Bee,  Beghu,  Begu,  Bugga), 
Saint  and  nun,  iii.  195,  196,  386, 
389,  see  also  Heiu. 

Behrfrid,  i.  cl. 

Beith,  i.  36. 

Bekerey,  ii.  442. 

Belgium,  i.  71  ;  iii.  183. 

Beli,  ii.  106,  107. 

Bell  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  28. 

Bell,  miraculous,  iii.  354. 

Bells,  ii.  497. 

Beltingham,  iii.  59,  60,  304. 

Bemerside,  iii.  5. 

Benedict,  St.,  i.  xxii,  xxix,  xl,  xlii, 
175,  176,  178,  179,  181,  204,  258; 
iii.  340. 

Benedict  ii.,  Saint  and  Pope,  i. 
clxxxi ;  ii.  198,  205,  209,  346-348. 

Benedict  ix.,  Pope,  iii.  162. 

Benedict  Biscop,  St.,  i.  xxxii,  xxxiii, 
xxxvi,  Ixxxiii,  Ixxxiv,  xciii,  cxxvii, 
cxxviii,  156,  159-161,  163,  164, 
167,  168,  174,  182,  221,  251,  304, 
305,  308  ;  ii.  2,  23,  31,  69,  103, 
153,  179,  248,  253-258,  272-280, 
285,  287-291,  293,  299-307,  322, 
323,  343,  507  ;  iii-  149,  266,  325, 
327,  328,  332,  357,  360,  3647366. 

Benedictine  Order,  i.  xl,  xli,  Ivi  ;  iii. 
loi,  102,  360,  384. 

Benedictus  Crispus,  Archbishop  of 
Milan,  ii.  146. 

Beneventum,  Duchy,  i.  233. 

Bent  grass,  i.  99. 

Ben  well,  iii.  351. 

Beodrechworth,  see  Bury  St.  Ed- 
munds. 

Beorhtfrid  (Beorhtferth,  Berhtfrid), 
ealdorman,  ii.  221-224,  226,  504? 
506  ;  iii.  346. 

Beorhtgils,  see  Boniface. 

Beorhtsuith,  see  Bregusuid. 

Beorhtwald,    Abbot,    i.    cli,  clii ;  ii. 

372. 
Beorhtwald  (Beorwald,  Bercuald, 
Berhtuald,  Berhtwald,  Berhwald, 
Berichtwald,  Beroald,  Berthuald, 
Brehtwald,  Brihtwald),  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  i.  cxiv,  cxxi,  cxxvii, 
cxxx,  cxxxvii,  cxxxix,  cxlviii,  clii- 
cliv,  clvi,  clx,  clxiv,  clxvii,  clxix, 
clxx,  clxxii-clxxiv,  clxxxiv,  clxxxv; 
ii.  125,  126,  197,  204,  206,  211, 
216,  223-225,  358-364,  372,  394, 
420,  446,  451,  494,  501  ;  iii.  212, 
348,  364,  367  ;  see  also  Beorhtwald, 
nephew  of  /Ethelred. 


Beorhtwald,  nephew  of  y^ithelred,  i. 

cxlii ;    ii.    loi,    102,   360;   see  also 

Beorhtwald,  Archbishop. 
Beornfrith,  Abbot,  i.  civ. 
Beornstan,  see  Bertinus. 
Beorwald,  see  Beohrtwald. 
Berchann,  St.,  iii.  353. 
Berchtgyth,  iii.  191. 
Berchthun     (Berclhun),     Saint     and 

Abbot,  ii.   179;  iii.   152,    154-156, 

161,  163,  204. 
Berchtsuith,  see  Bregusuid. 
Berchtyth,  iii.  191. 
Beret  (Berctus,Berctrid),  ii.  104,  155. 
Bercthun,  see  Berchthun. 
Bercthun,  Sussex  chief,  ii.  133. 
Berctrid,  see  Beret. 
Berctsuid,  see  Bregusuid. 
Bercuald,  Bercuuald,  see  Beorhtwald. 
Berecingum,  ii.  42. 
Bergues,  i.  64. 
Berhferth,  i.  clxxi. 
Berhfrid,  monk,  ii.  449. 
Berhtfrid,  see  Beorhtfrid. 
Berhther   (Bertared,  Pectarit),  Lom- 
bard king,  ii.  58  ;  iii.  362. 
Berhtuald,      Berhtwald,      Berhwald, 

Berichtwald,  see  Beorhtwald. 
Berin's  Hill,  i.  36. 
Berkshire,  i.  40;  ii.  119,  447,  491. 
Bermondsey,  i.  cxxx. 
Bernard  the  Sacrist,  iii.  15. 
Bernard,  St.,  i.  xl,  Ixxx. 
Bernardus,  ii.  257. 
Bernguid  (Bernguida),  i.  clxv,  clxvi, 
Bernicia,  i.  4,  5,  8,   11,  34,  75,  79, 

83,  94,    126,   184,  221  ;  ii.  51,  53, 

228,  504;  iii.  187,  303. 
Bernicia,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxvi. 
Bernicia,  Kings  of,  i.  clxxxii. 
Bernwin,  nephew  of  Wilfrid,  ii.  135. 
Beroald,  see  Beorhtwald. 
Berri,  Due  de,  ii.  265. 
Bersuitha,  see  Bregusuid. 
Bertana,  Abbess,  i.  clxv  ;  ii.  388. 
Bertared,  see  Berhther. 
Bertha  (Byrhte),  Queen  of  Kent,  i. 

241,  243. 
Berther,  priest,  iii.  234. 
Berthgyth,  Abbess,  iii.  191. 
Bertinus       (Beornstan,       Byrnstan), 

Bishop  of  Winchester,  i.  44. 
Berwald,  Abbot  of  Glastonbury,  ii. 

450- 
Berwick,  i.  21  ;  iii.  81. 

Besangon,  ii.  9. 

Besingahearh,  i.  clxvii. 

Bestlesford,  i.  cxlv,  cxlvi ;  iii.  348. 

Bethlehem,  i.  170,  175, 


INDEX 


403 


Betti,  i.  123. 

Beverley,  iii.  155,  157,  161,  162,  164- 
170,  204. 

Beverley,  John  of,  see  John  of 
Beverley. 

Bevon  Gamel,  iii.  14. 

Bewcastle,  i.  133,  336-347  ;  "i-  59, 
60,  146,  209,  270,  304,  306,  310, 
311,  316,  317,  319,  .320. 

Bible,  Latin  versions,  i.  xxxiv. 

Bible  study,  iii.  370. 

Bible,  see  also  Codex. 

Bigamy,  iii.  247. 

Bigotry,  iii.  392,  393. 

Billfrith  (Billfred,  Billfrid),  iii.  70, 
109,  no,  118,  119. 

Bilton,  iii.  155. 

Binchester,  ii.  294, 

Birch  (W.  de  G. ),  Cartularium  Saxon- 
icum,  i.  cxxi. 

Birching  scholars,  ii.  516. 

Birdei,  see  Bruidi. 

Birin  (Birinus,  Byrne),  Saint,  and 
Bishop  of  Dorchester,  i.  35-46, 
321 ;  ii.  441. 

Birnsale  (Burnsall),  iii.  58. 

Birtley,  Richard  de,  iii.  87. 

Bischoffsheim,  iii.  185,  237. 

Biscop,  son  of  Beda,  i.  160. 

Biscop  Baducing,  i.  160. 

Biscop,  Benedict,  see  Benedict  Biscop. 

Biscopsheim,  see  Bischoffsheim. 

Biscopstane,  ii.  496. 

Bishop  Burton,  iii.  155. 

Bishop  Hatfield,  iii.  390. 

Bishops,  advice  to,  i.  xliv,  xlv :  con- 
secration, i.  209-213 :  duties,  iii. 
250,  251  :  eight  in  Heptarchy,  i. 
249 :  foreign,  to  be  content  with 
hospitality,  ii.  28 :  increase  of,  ii. 
29  ;  iii.  361  :  monastic,  i.  141  : 
not  to  disturb  monasteries,  ii.  27  : 
not  to  sleep  at  monasteries,  i.  cliv  : 
not  to  intrude  into  other  dioceses, 
ii.  26  :  ordination  at  Rome,  i.  288- 
293  :  ordination  by  one  bishop,  i. 
289;  ii.  54,  185  ;  iii.  362  :  powers, 
i.  XX,  xxi,  cxxxix  :  precedence  of, 
ii.  29  :  reconsecration,  i.  350-355  : 
regicide,  ii.  90 :  subordinate  to 
abbots,  i.  xxviii,  23,  25,  31  ;  ii. 
406  ;  iii.  349. 

Bishopstowe,  ii.  499. 

Bisi,  Bishop  of  East  Anglia,  i.  cv, 
309;  ii.  22,  52,  419. 

Blachernae,  ii.  79. 

Blackhill,  iii.  351. 

Black  Prince,  i.  90. 

Blackwater,  i.  142. 


Blackwell,  iii.  221. 
Bladon,  river,  i.  clvii ;  iii.  348. 
Bledenhithe,  i.  cliii  ;  ii.  501. 
Blindness  prevented,  i.  90. 
Blithman,  Commissioner,  iii.  93. 
Blood-eating,  iii.  243. 
Blood-letting,  ii.  179;  iii.  204. 
Blood  money,  ii.  42. 
BIyborough,  iii.  356. 
Boarhurst,  i.  316. 
Bobon,  Treasurer,  ii.  264. 
Bodesham     (Botdesham),    i.    cxxxv, 

cxxxvi. 
Bo-finne,  i.  197. 
Bohemia,  i.  72,  298. 
Boisil,  see  Bosel. 
Bolton  Abbey,  iii.  55. 
Boniface,  Archdeacon,  i.    164,    165 ; 

ii.  209,  252,  391  ;  iii.  194, 
Boniface  (Beorhtgils),  Bishop  of  East 

Anglia,    i.    cv,   clxxxiv,   210,   212, 

2I3>  307,  309- 
Boniface  (Winfrith,    Wynfrid,    Wyn- 
frith),  St.,  i.  xxxviii,  xliii,  Ii,  xcii, 
xcvi,  xcix,  cxiii,  cxiv,  cxlvi,   287  ; 
ii.   124,  356,   379,   391,    419,    435. 

444,  447,  449-451,  477,  485,  49i, 
501,  504;  iii.  39,  150,  160,  183, 
190,  201,  203,  204,  211,  229,  230, 
233,  235,  237,  340,  368,  383,  388. 

Bonosus,  i.  351. 

Book-collecting,  ii.  273,  322,  323. 

Book  exchanged  for  lands,  ii.  153, 
507. 

Books  at  Durham,  iii.  385. 

Books  destroyed  by  Danes,  i.  cxxiii. 

Books  in  monasteries,  iii.  328. 

Books  at  Ripon,  i.  380,  381. 

Books,  and  miracle,  ii.  492,  493. 

Books,  sacred,  not  to  be  sold,  ii.  336. 

Books  to  be  burnt,  ii.  336. 

Bophin,  i.  197. 

Bordeaux,  ii.  8. 

Bosa,  Bishop  of  York,  i.  clxxiv, 
clxxxvi  ;  ii.  53,  211,  223,  234,  506  ; 
iii.  140,  151,  152,  193,  362,  364. 

Bosanham  (Bosham),  ii.  115. 

Bosel  (Basil,  Boisil,  Bosil,  Boysil), 
Bishop  of  Worcester,  i.  clxv,  clxvi, 
clxxxvi  ;  ii.  186,  384,  385,  388  ; 
iii.  5. 

Bosel,  Prior  of  Melrose,  ii,  405  ;  iii. 
5,  6,  8,  9,  10,  30,  31,  103. 

Bosham,  ii.  115. 

Bosi,  Bishop  of  Dunwich,  i.  clxxxiv. 

Bossuet,  i.  204. 

Boston,  i.  136  ;  ii.  411  ;  iii.  351. 

Bota,  ii.  335. 

Botdesham,  see  Bodesham. 


404 


INDEX 


Bothelm,  mason's  boy,  i.  370. 

Bothelm,  monk  of  Hexham,  i.  27. 

Botulf,  see  Botulph. 

Botulfeston,  i.  136, 

Botulfstown,  i.  136. 

Botulph  (Botulf),  St.,  i.  136,  137  ;  ii. 

256,  411  ;  iii.  347,  356. 
Botwine,  Abbot,  ii.  243. 
Boulogne,  ii.  139. 
Bourges,  ii.  8. 
Bowyer,  Robert,  iii.  108. 
Boyle,  ii.  152. 
Boysil,  see  Bosel. 
Bracara,  ii.  4. 

Bracklaeshamstede,  ii.  449. 
Bradanafel,  iii.  348. 
Bradanford,  ii.  494- 
Bradansae,  i.  332. 
Bradenfeld,  i.  cxlv,  cxlvi. 
Bradford-on-Avon,  i.  cxliii ;   ii.   294, 

465,  494,  496,  499. 
Brad  well,  see  Ythanccester. 
Braga,  ii.  4. 
Brainshaugh,  ii-  S^S- 
Brandesburton,  iii.  165. 
Brechin,  i.  36. 
Bregesne,  ii.  513. 
Bregford,  i.  cxlii. 
Bregh,  Magh,  ii.  104. 
Breguntford,  ii.  364,  494. 
Bregusuid      (Bersuitha,       Berctsuid, 

Beorhtsuith,  Berchtsuith),  iii.    187, 

190,  191. 
Bregwin,  ii.  361. 
Brehtwald,  see  Beorhtwald. 
Brendan,  St.,  iii.  353- 
Brent,  East,  i.  cliii.  cliv. 
Brentford,  i.  clxx  ;  ii.  364,  494. 
Brenzett,  iii.  386. 
Bretons,  Damnonian,  i.  297. 
Bretwalda,  i.  8,  35,  47)  74»  I33.  240; 

ii.  138. 
Breviary  with  office  for  St.  Chad,  i. 

364.         ..      ^ 
Brice,  St.,  u.  264. 
Bricklesworde,     Bricklesworthe,     see 

Brixworth. 
Bride  Kirk,  iii.  307. 
Brie,  i.  I2i,  167  ;  iii.  183,  223. 
Bright,  John,  ii.  251. 
Bright,  Canon  William,^  i.  clxxvi. 
Brightefert  of  Rantscy,  i.  xcv. 
Brigid,  St.,  i.  19. 
Brihtmaer,  Bishop,  i.  clxxii. 
Brihtwald,  see  Beorhtwald. 
Brinkburn,  ii.  513. 
Bristol,  iii.  221. 
Brithred     the     butler,    ii.    506  ;    iii. 

161. 


Brithwald's  Life  of  St.  Ecgwin,  iii. 

347. 
Britons,  i.  'j'j  ;  iii.  173  :  after  Winwaed 

battle,  i.   219:  confined  to  Wales, 

i.    132:    hatred  of   English,    i.    5: 

lost    Eastern    England,   i.    15  ;    ii. 

408  ;  iii.  368  :  of  Wales,  iii.  366. 
Brittany,  i.  21. 

Brives  la  Gaillarde,  ii.  265,  267. 
Brixworth   (Bricklesworde,    Brickles- 
worthe), i.  334,  335  ;   ii.  186-196, 

281. 
Broad,  iii.  356. 
Broadway,  ii.  499. 
Brooke,  Rev.  Stopford  A.,  i.  clxxvi. 
Brord,  dux,  i.  clxvi. 
Brown,  Anthony,  iii.  98. 
Brown,  Prof.  G.  Baldwin,  i.  clxxvii. 
Browne,  Bishop  G.  Forrest,  i.  clxxvi. 
Bruidi  (Birdei,  Brude),  King  of  Picts, 

ii,  106,  107  ;  iii.  366. 
Brumalia,  ii.  335. 
Brunanburgh,  battle,  ii.  98,  497. 
Brunichildis,  Queen,  i.  302. 
Bruny,  Dukeof  South  Saxons,  i.  cxlix. 
Brussels,  i.  Ixxiii. 
Bruton,  ii.  471. 
Bryn  Hall,  i.  53. 

Brythnoth,  Abbot  of  Ely,  iii,  222. 
Bubba,  i.  160. 
Bucga,  nun,  i.  clxi. 
Budecalech,  i.  cliv. 
Budinhaam,  i.  clxviii. 
Bugga  (Bugge),  daughter  of  Centwine, 

i.  cxiv;  ii.  123,  124,  134,435,  462, 

463  ;  iii.  370,  373. 
Bugga  (Heaburg),   i.   cxiv ;   iii.   203, 

204,  233. 
Bugga,  see  also  Bega. 
Bulcred,  "King,"  i.  cxxiv  ;  iii.  208. 
Bulgaria,  ii.  340. 
Bulgarians,  i.  299  ;  ii.  61-63. 
Bullae,  ii.  252  ;  iii.  194. 
Bull-baiting,  iii.  37,  161. 
Burch,  ii.  33. 

Burgh,  Bishop  de,  iii.  216. 
Burgh  Castle  (Cnobheresburg),  i.  1 14, 

120;  iii.  352. 
Burghelm,  ii.  Ii5- 
Burgred,    King   of  Mercia,    ii.   439 ; 

iii.  221. 
Burgundofaro,   Bishop   of  Meaux,    i. 

306. 
Burgundy,  i.  xix,  165,  166,  294,  300, 

301- 
Burial  of  unbaptized,  iii.  261. 
Burials  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  29. 
Burials  in  church,  iii.  249,  250,  261. 
Burne,  battle  of,  i.  53. 


INDEX 


405 


Burngitha,  ii.  477. 

Burns,  Robert,  iii.  262. 

Burnsall,  iii,  58. 

Burrigida,  nun,  iii.  232. 

Bury,  Prof.  John  B.,  i.  clxxvii. 

Bury  St.  Edmunds,  i.  115,  121,  137. 

Byrhte,  see  Bertha. 

Byrne,  see  Birin. 

Byrnstan,  see  Bertinus. 

Byzantine  Empire,  ii.  59~64. 

Byzantine  vice  and  virility,  i.  xii,  xiii. 

Byzantium,  see  Constantinople. 

Cadafael  (Cadavsel),  King  of  Gwynedd, 
see  Catgabail. 

Cadvan,  i.  ii  ;  iii.  348. 

Cadwallon,  see  Caedwalla. 

Ciedmon,  poet,  i.  xxxv,  cvi,  clxxvi, 
clxxviii  ;  iii.  193,  262-301. 

Caedvi^alader,  son  of  Caedwalla,  i.  15. 

Caedwalla,  King  of  Gwynedd,  i.  4,  6, 
7,  II,  13-15,  42,  48,  50,  51,  74, 
75  ;  ii.  131,  132  ;  iii.  3,  303,  348. 

Caedwalla  (Ceadual,  Ceadwala),  King 
of  Wessex,  i.  Iviii,  cxlii-cxliv, 
cxlviii,  cli,  clxvii,  clxviii,  clxxii, 
clxxiii,  clxxxiii ;  ii.  124,  125,  130- 
148,  167,  356,   374,  426,  428,  429, 

439,  469  ;  iii-  362,  m> 
Cselin  (Celin),    i.    94,    141,    153;    n. 

232. 
Caer  Dauri,  see  Dorchester. 
Caer  Eyddyn,  i.  129. 
Caer  Wise,  ii.  443. 
Csesarea,  i.  254,  255,  260,  263. 
Cresarius,  St.,  Bishop  of  Aries,  i.  175  J 

iii.  176,  181,  182. 
Caetlsevum,  i.  379. 
Cahors,  i.  100,  295,  296. 
Cairo  (Fostat),  i.  232. 
Caistor   (Castor,    Dormundcaster),   i. 

223,  339>  348  ;  ii-  425  ;  iii-  209. 
Calabria,  i.  234. 
Calcaria,  see  Tadcaster. 
Caldey  Island,  iii.  318. 
Caliphate,  i.  230. 
Callinicus,  ii.  60. 
Cam,  ii.  409. 
Camboise,  ii.  307. 
Cambrey,  i.  116. 
Cambridge,  ii.  409. 
Cambusnethan,  iii.  351. 
Camel  to  carry  an  altar,  ii.  471. 
Camin  of  Iniskeltra,  i.  321. 
Campania,  ii.  58,  90. 
Candida  Casa,  see  Whitherne. 
Candlestick  called  Jesse,  iii.  227. 
Canonisation,  i.  Ixxvi  ;  iii.  339,  340. 
Canons,  Book  of,  ii.  25. 


Canons  discussed  at  Ilerutford,  ii. 
26-30. 

Cantcaul,  battle,  i.  ii,  15. 

Canterbury,  i.  xxviii,  cxii,  cxxiii- 
cxxvi,  cxxxiv,  cxxxvi,  cxxxix,  clxxii, 
39,  45,  117,  142,  147,  149.  160- 
163,  216,  247,  249,  319,  366,  374 ; 
ii.  51,  129,  157,  160,  167,  175,  1S5, 
193,  216,  243-245,  253,  256,  362, 
454-457,492;  iii-  210,  219,  227- 
229,  236,  315,  360,  375,  391. 

Canterbury,  Abbots,  ii.  365-372. 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  position 
in  Heptarchy,  i.  249-251  :  reason 
why  Englishmen  not  appointed, 
iii.  360:  use  of  title,  ii.  ii. 

Canterbury,  Archbishops  of,  i. 
clxxxiv,  clxxxv :  first  seven  all 
monks,  iii.  364. 

Canterbury,  Archbishops,  primacy  of, 
i.  220,  250;  ii.  I,  24,  52,  175,  185, 

243,  362. 
Canterbury,      Archbishops,      second 

dynasty,  i.  249. 
Canterbury,  See  vacancy,  i.   216  ;  ii. 

184. 
Canterbury  school,    i.    xxxi,    Ixxxiv ; 

ii.    175,   365-368,    454,    456,  467; 

iii-  359,  360. 
Cantucuudu,  i.  cli. 
Canute,  see  Cnut. 
Cappadocia,  i.  174,  259,  261. 
Care,  river,  ii.  506. 
Carham   (Carram,    Carrum),    iii.   57, 

59. 
Carilef,  Bishop,  iii.  18,  64. 

Carinthia,  i.  298. 

Carlisle  (Luel,  Lugubalia),  i.  clxxiv, 

70,   133;  ii.    109;    iii.   32-34,  4if 

54,  56,  59,  91,  184,  208. 
Carniola,  i.  72,  298. 
Carram,  see  Carham. 
Carron,  river,  ii.  506. 
Carrum,  see  Carham. 
Carthage,  i.  231,  233,  235;  ii.  339. 
Carthagena,  ii.  3. 
Carthagh,  St.,  i.  321. 
Cartmel,  i.  379;  iii.  56. 
Casail,  i.  27. 
Cassian,  Saint  and  Bishop,  i.  170-182, 

278;  iii.  176:  Rule  of,  i.  173-1S1. 
Cassiodorus,  i.  xxxiv,   175;  iii.   325, 

326,  330-337- 
Castor,  see  Caistor. 
Castor,  Bishop  of  Apt,  i.  173. 
Cataracta,  see  Catterick. 
Catgabail  (Cadafrel,  Cadavsl),  King 

of  Gwynedd,  i.  15,  126,  131. 
Catgublaun,  i.  Ii. 


4o6 


INDEX 


Catguollaun,  i.  II. 

Catgus,  i.  II. 

Cath  ys  gwaul,  i.  15. 

Cathair  Fursa,  iii.  355. 

Cation,  i.  II. 

Catreht,  see  Catterick. 

Catscaul,  battle  of,  i.  II,  15. 

Catterick  (Cataracta,  Catreht),  i.  79, 

154- 
Ceadda  (Chad),  St.,  i.  Ixxxiv,  cxxv, 
clxxiv,  clxxxv,  30,  94,  98,  141,  206, 
212-214,  216,  217,  225,  307,  323, 
324,  349-366;  ii.  35.  50.  93.  173. 
381,  405,  490;  iii.    17,    194,   218, 

219.  357,  359- 
Ceadual,    Ceadwala,    see    Caedwalla, 

King  of  Wessex. 
Ceaulin,  ii.  428. 
Cedde,  St.,  Bishop  of  London,  i.  cv, 

cxlvi,  clxxiv,  clxxxiv,  30,  94,   98, 

123,   140-142,   150-154,   187,   199, 

206,  207,  212,  213,  223,  307,  363; 

ii.  50  ;  iii.  357. 
Celibacy  of  monks  at  Lindisfarne,  1. 

26. 
Celin,  see  Caelin. 
Cellan,  Abbot,  ii.  453,  467,  468,  474, 

475- 
Celta,  i.  clxxii. 

Celtic  clergy  not  recognised,  i.  352. 
Celtic  rites,  difference  from  Roman 

i-55- 
Cemele,  see  Kemble. 
Cementarii,  ii.  258  ;  iii.  365. 
Cenferth,  ii.  32. 
Cenfrith  (Kenfrith),  ealdorman,  i.  cxl, 

cxli. 
Cenfus,  ii.  32. 
Cengisl,  see  Hemgils. 
Cenred,  see  Coenred. 
Centwal,  King,  i.  clxvii. 
Centwine      (Centwyn,       Chentwini, 
Kenten,      Kentwine),      King      of 
Wessex,    i.    cxlii,    cxliii,    cli,    clii, 
cliv,  clxxxiii ;  ii.  38,  50,  102,   118, 
119,  123-125,  134,  148,  453,  462; 
iii.  233. 
Cenwalch,  see  Coinwalch. 
Cenwulf,  see  Cynewulf. 
Ceode,  Bishop  of  lona,  iii.  138. 
Ceodwala,  see  Caedwalla. 
Ceolfrid,    Abbot,     i.     xxxii,    xxxiii, 
Ixxxiii,    Ixxxiv,    xc,     cix,    cxxviii, 
cxxix,  29,    137;  ii.   153,   156,   196, 
255-258,  276,  277,  287,  298-301, 
304,306-312,   315-324.  403,  507; 
iii.   138,   148,    150,    197,   321-323, 
325.  327-330,  332,  333,  336,  337, 
339,  360,  365-367. 


Ceolfrid,  King   of  Mercia,    ii.    430 ; 

iii.  212,  345. 
Ceolla,  iii.  230. 
Ceollach,  Bishop  of  Mercia,  i.  clxxxv, 

135,  136,  218. 
Ceolred  (Ciolred),  King  of  Mercia,  i. 

clxx,    clxxxiii ;    ii.    232,    378-380, 

414,  504  ;  iii.  221. 
Ceolswitha,  see  Cilia. 
Ceolwald,  ii.  428. 
Ceolwulf,  Bishop,  i.  clxvi. 
Ceolwulf  (Echdach,    Eochaid),    St., 

King  of  Northumbria,  i.  xlvii,  Iviii, 

civ;  ii.   510-517  ;  iii.   40,   57,   70, 

142,  384. 
Ceolwulf,    son   of    Cynric   (Wessex), 

ii.  32,  50. 
Cerdic,  ii.  32,  428. 
Cerdic,  chief  of  Elmet,  iii.  187. 
Cerotaesei,  see  Chertsey. 
Certeseye,  see  Chertsey. 
Cerwelle,  see  Cherwell. 
Cester,  see  Chester-le-Street. 
Chad,  St.,  see  Ceadda. 
Chadkirk,  iii.  359. 
Chadstowe,  i.  357. 
Chadwell  Heath,  iii.  359. 
Chadwick,  iii.  359. 
Chreremon,  Abbot,  i.  17 1. 
Chair,  Bede's,  ii.  293. 
Chalcedon,  ii.  333. 
Chamar,  i.  299. 
Champagne,  i.  169;  ii.  58,  90. 
Channel  Kirk,  iii.  36. 
Chanting,  i.  ex;  ii.  201. 
Chares  of  Lindos,  i.  230. 
Charibert,  i.  293,  295. 
Charinus,  Deacon,  ii.  73. 
Charles  the  Great,  i.  xxxix,  cxii ;  ii. 

259,  261,  438. 
Charles  the  Simple,  iii.  355. 
Charms,  iii.  10. 

Charters,  Anglo-Saxon,  i.  cxx-clxxv. 
Chastity,  i.  1,  liii,  liv  ;  ii.   373,  374  ; 

iii.  178,  180. 
Chasuble,  i.  27. 
Chatelac,  ii.  265. 
Chateriz,  iii.  387. 
Cheker,  William  de,  iii.  81. 
Chelles,  i.  167,  303  ;  ii.  266;  iii.  183, 

188,  226,  232,  354. 
Chelsea  (Ethcealchy),  i.  clviii  ;  ii.  385. 
Chenewalch,  see  Coinwalch. 
Chentwini,  see  Centwine. 
Cherleton,  i.  cxli. 
Cherson,  ii.  340. 

Chertsev  (Cerotaesei,  Certeseye),  i. 
cxxvii,  cxxx,  cxlvi,  cxlvii ;  ii.  33, 
42-46,  421, 


INDEX 


407 


Cherwell  (Ccrwelle),  river,  i.  clxvi. 
Chester,  i.  71  ;  ii.  295;  iii.  220,  221, 

391. 
Chester-le-Street   (Cesler,    Concaces- 

tre,    Cunungaceastre),    i.    xcii,  60 ; 

iii.  62,  63,  131,  340. 
Chesters,  i.  12. 

Chichele,  Archbishop,  iii.  166. 
Chichester,  i.  cxlvii  ;  li.  115  ;  iii.  367. 
Chick,  iii.  392. 

Childebert,  Kins^  of  Austrasia,  i.  302. 
Childebert  III.,  King  of  the  Franks, 

i.  clxxxi,  clxxxii. 
Childeric,    King   of    the    Franks,    i. 

clxxxi. 
Childeswicwon,  i.  clxiii. 
ChiHington,  ii.  i^S- 
Cliilmark,  ii.  121. 
Chilperic  ii..   King  of  the  Franks,  i. 

clxxxii ;  ii.  321. 
Chilswell,  ii.  120. 
Chiltern,  Forest  of,  ii.  133. 
Chilterns,  i.  36. 
Chilton,  i.  40  ;  ii.  121. 
Chintila,  ii.  16. 
Chlothaire    i.,   King  of  the    Franks, 

iii.  362. 
Chlothaire  II.,    King  of  Neustria,  i. 

clxxxi,  294  ;  ii.  264,  266,  268. 
Chlothaire  in..  King  of  the  Franks, 

i.  166,  302,  303. 
Chlothaire  IV.,  King  of  Austrasia,  i. 

clxxxii. 
Chlothaire     (Hlothaire,     Leutherius, 

Lothaire),    Bishop    of   Wessex,    i. 

cxl,   clxv,   clxxi,  clxxxiv,  366  ;  ii. 

22,  31,  50,  440,  454,  461  ;  iii.  348. 
Chlothaire,      King      of     Kent,      see 

Hlothaire. 
Chlovis  II.,  King  of  Neustria,  i.  116, 

166,  300,  302. 
Chlovis  III.,  King  of  the  Franks,  i. 

clxxxi. 
ChoUerton,  i.  71. 
Chon,  i.  II. 

Chrism,  iii.  252,  253,  256. 
Chrismal  robes,  ii.  141  ;  iii.  363. 
Chrismarium,  ii.  92. 
Christ  represented  as  a  man,  ii.  337. 
Christ,  two  wills  or  one,  ii.  64. 
Christendom,  Western,  reunion,  i.  xx. 
Christening  gift,  i.  335,  336;  ii.  113. 
Christmas,  ii.  445. 
Christmas  fast  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  29. 
Christopher,  St.,  relics,  i.  67. 
Chrodegang,  Bishop  of  Metz,  ii.  261, 

362. 
Chronology,  Biblical,  interest  in,   ii. 

229,  230. 


I    Church,  British,  schismatical,  i.  209, 

337- 
Church,  Eastern,  ii.  327-338. 
Church,  Egyptian,  i.  231. 
Church,   English,    administration,   ii. 

9,  10. 
Church,  English,  in  Theodore's  time, 

i.  306. 
Church,  English,  origin,  i.  xi. 
Church,  English,  second  birth,  i.  254. 
Church,   Gaul,   administration,   ii.  3, 

7-9- 
Church,  German,  origin,  i.  xi. 

Church,  Irish,  i.  xxvi-xxix. 

Church,  Spanish,  ii.  2-7,  344-347. 

Church,  Welsh,  i.  xxviii. 

Church,  Western,  government,  ii.  2. 

Churches  built,  i.  21,  22,  32,  43. 

Churches  desecrated  by  burials,  iii. 
261. 

Churches,  English,  improvement,  i. 
xxxvi. 

Churches,  monastic,  construction,  i.25. 

Churches,  removal,  iii.  249. 

Churches,  Saxon,  at  Bradford-on- 
Avon,  ii.  465  :  Brixworth,  ii.  186- 
196  :  Corbridge,  iii.  387  :  Escomb, 
ii.  293-297  :  Jarrow,  ii.  287-293  : 
Peterborough,  i.  334,  335  :  Re- 
culver,  i.  317-319  :  Repton,  iii. 
386:  South  Elmham,  i.  310-316: 
Wearmouth,  ii.  280-286 :  Ythan- 
ccester,  i.  142-150. 

Churn  Knot,  i.  40. 

Cicero,  i.  58. 

Cilbury  Hill,  ii.  I2I. 

Cilia  (Ceolswitha,  Cillan),  i.  cxlv, 
cxlvi ;  ii.  119-122. 

Ciltine,  ii.  132. 

Ciolred,  see  Ceolred. 

Cissa  (Cyssa),  i.  cxlv;  ii.  119-121, 
123,  413,  414,  428.  _ 

Cistercian  Order,  i.  Ivi. 

Clan  system  in  Irish  monasteries,  iii. 

183. 

Classic  authors  known  to  mediaeval 
writers,  i.  Ixxxviii  ;  iii.  341,  383. 

Cleburn,  see  Cliburne. 

Clement,  St.,  ii.  396. 

Clement,  St.  (of  Rome),  iii.  370. 

Clement  viii.,  ii.  332. 

Clement  xiii.,  iii.  339. 

Clergy,  forbidden  to  teach,  iii.  359  : 
garb  of,  ii.  333  :  ignorance,  i.  xx, 
xxii,  xxxi :  inferior,  at  synods,  ii. 
23  :  marriage  of,  i.  26  :  morals,  i. 
xx-xxii,  xliii-xlv:  not  to  wander, 
ii.  27  :  secular,  absent  from  Lindis- 
farne, iii.  351. 


408 


INDEX 


Cleveland,  iii.  59. 

Cliburne,  iii.  59,  61. 

Cliffe  at  Hoe  (Hoo),  ii.  20,  29  ;  see 

also  Aet  Hoe. 
Clive,  i.  332. 

Clofeshoch,  see  Cloveshoe. 
Clonard,  i.  322. 
Clothes  of  nuns,   iii.    1 79-1 81,    184, 

185. 
Cloveshoe  (Clofeshoch),  1.  h,  cxxxix, 

cxl  ;  ii.  28,  29,  402  ;  iii.  361. 
Cluniac  Order,  i.  Ivi. 
Clyde,  i.  15  ;  iii.  34- 
Cneuburga,  see  Cuenburga. 
Cnobheresburg,  see  Burgh  Castle. 
Cnobher's  Town,  i.  1 14. 
Cnut  (Canute),    King,  iii.  227,  310, 

386. 
Cocboy,  battle,  i.  53. 
Cockedge,  i.  53. 
Codex  A?niatinus,  i.  xxxiii,  clxxviii  ; 

iii.  321-337- 
Codex   Grandior,   iii.    325-328,   331- 

333- 

Coenburg,  Abbess,  see  Cuthburga. 

Coenbyrht  (Coenbright),  ii.  428. 

Coengils,  see  Hemgils. 

Coenred  (Kenred),  King  of  Mercia,  i. 
Iviii,  cxlv,  cxlviii-cl,  clxiii,  clxiv, 
clxix-clxxi,  clxxxiii ;  ii.  217,  218, 
232,  365,  374,  375,  377,  378,  394, 
412,  425,  428,  494,  495  ;  111.  212.^ 

Coenred,  King  of  Northunibria,  i. 
clxxxiii ;  ii.  508-51 1. 

Coenthrytha,  see  Kenedritha. 

Coffin,  Cuthberht's  voyage  in,  iii,  62  : 
miracle,  ii.  423  :  prepared  in  life- 
time, iii.  157  :  royal,  iii.  368. 

Coins  made  by  St.  Eloi,  ii.  268. 

Coinwalch  (Cenwalch,  Chenewalch, 
Kenwalch,  Kenwald),  King  of 
Wessex,  i.  cliv,  clxvi,  clxxi,  clxxii, 
clxxxii,  clxxxiii,  42,  46,  120,  183, 
185,  320-326,  335,  365  ;  ii.  30, 
31,  118,  130,  254,  440,  442;  iii. 
361. 

Colam,  i.  158. 

Colana,  iii.  205. 

Coldebur  Chesheved,  iii.  213. 

Coldingham,  i.  xliii,  Ixii  ;  ii.  99,  lOO, 
254  ;  iii.  12,  14,  184,  204-208,  213, 

389- 
Colerne,  ii.  496,  499. 
Colla  Fursa,  iii.  352. 
Collingham,  i.   80,  91,  92,   155,  219, 

378  ;  ii.  103,  256,  403. 
Colman,     numerous     saints     of    the 

name,  i.  158,  159. 
Colman,  St.,  Bishop  of  Northumbria, 


i.  Ixxxvi,  ciii,  clxxxv,  94,  158,  159, 
186-189,  191-199,  204,  205,  220, 
222  ;  ii.  403  ;  iii.  352,  357. 

Colodaesburg,  see  Coldingham. 

Cologne,  i.  71,  300;  ii.  260,  261. 

Colossus  of  Rhodes,  i.  230. 

Columba,  St.,  i.  xxvi,  10,  19,  24,  29, 
188,  194,  195;  ii.  171,  257,  308  ; 
iii.  137,  362. 

Columbanus,  i.  xxvi;  iii,  183. 

Columbus,  ii.  264. 

Columcille,  i.  188. 

Comb,  ivory,  iii.  66,  67,  7i« 

Come's  Well,  iii.  352. 

Comes,  meaning,  i.  80;  iii.  35 1. 

Comet,  ii.  35,  36. 

Communion,  i.  280,  281  ;  iii.  246. 

Compendium,  i.  210. 

Compiegne,  i.  210. 

Compline,  i.  27,  277. 

Conall,  St.,  iii.  353. 

Conall  Gulban,  iii.  137. 

Conan,  Abbot  of  Abingdon,  ii.  122. 

Concacestre,  see  Chester-le-Street. 

Concubinage,  iii.  183,  244. 

Conemora,  ii.  121. 

Confession,  i.  29,  279,  280;  iii.  261. 

Confession  of  Faith,  ii.  74. 

Confirmation,  iii.  252. 

Cong,  iii.  353. 

Conmael,  Abbot,  iii.  137. 

Connar,  iii.  355. 

Connaught,  ii.  152. 

Conon,  Pope,  i.  clxxxi ;  ii.  348. 

Conrad,  iii.  190. 

Consanguinity,  ii.  166. 

Constance,  i.  71. 

Constans  ii..  Emperor,  i.  xiv,  clxxxi, 
228-239,  254,  287,  305  ;  ii.  59,  64, 

75- 
Constantine    i.,    Emperor,    in.     313, 

370. 
Constantine  IV.  (Pogonotas),  Emperor, 
i.  clxxxi;  ii.   59-67,   69,    82,  325, 

326,  347. 
Constantine  i.,  Pope,  i.  cxxx,  clxxxii, 

353-355,  390,  394;  ii.  377;  iii- 
367-  .    ^ 

Constantine,  King  of  Scotland,  in.  63. 

Constantine,  see  also  Constans. 

Constantinople,  i.  xii,  xiv,  173,  233, 
234,  236,  254  ;  ii.  16,  59-61,  68, 
70,  75,  76,  328,  330,  331,  333, 
334,  343,  349,  353;.. iii-  3i3,  367. 

Conversion  of  monks,  ii.  27. 

Conway,  Sir  Martin,  i.  clxxvii. 

Copeland,  iii.  196. 

Coptic  influence  on  Northumbrian  art, 
iii.  316,  317. 


INDEX 


409 


Copts,  iii.  314. 

Coquet  Island,  i.  89  ;  iii.  198. 

Coquet,  river,  ii.  513. 

Corbican,  iii.  352. 

Corbie  Abbey,  i.  303  ;  iii.  352. 

Corbridge,  ii.  193  ;  iii.  387. 

Corby  Church,  ii.  295. 

Corf,  river,  miraculous  rising,  iii.  210. 

Corfe  Castle,  ii.  464. 

Corhampton,  i.  202. 

Corinth,  ii.  79. 

Corkaguiny,  iii.  354. 

Corman,  Bishop,  i.  17,  31. 

Cornelius,  catechumen,  iii.  252. 

Cornu  Vallis,  ii.  320. 

Cornwall,  ii.  430,  458,  487  ;  iii.  357. 

Corpses,   incorrupt,   ii.  415  ;  iii.   50- 

54,    69-71,    75-77,    93,    215-217, 

219,  220,  222-224. 
Corstopitum,  i.  370. 
Corven,  iii.  35. 

Cotta,  Abbot,  i.  clxix,  clxx,  clxxii. 
Cotton,  Sir  Robert,  iii.  309. 
Couches   forbidden   in    churches,    ii. 

337- 

Councils:  Agde,  iii.  183:  Baccan- 
helde,  see  Synod  :  Cloveshoe,  i.  Ii, 
cxxxix,  cxl  ;  ii.  29,  402  ;  iii.  361  : 
Third,  Constantinople,  ii.  16,  68, 
76,  78-82:  Sixth,  ii.  342,  344, 
354,  355  :  Quinisect,  ii.  327-338> 
349,  351;  iii.  367:  London,  ii. 
391:  Nicene,  i.  188;  iii.  241  : 
Nidd,  see  Synod  :  Orleans,  i.  351  : 
Toledo,  i.  xxxiv ;  ii.  12-20,  345, 
346  :  Wessex,  ii.  486,  487  :  Whitby, 
see  Synod. 

Courthope,  History  of  English  Poetry, 
i.  clxxvi. 

Cow,  white,  enchanted,  i.  197. 

Cowton,  iii.  62. 

Cradendene,  iii.  214,  387. 

Craike  (Craik,  Crayke,  Creca),  i. 
clxxiv  ;  ii.  406,  505  ;  iii.  54,  56, 
59,  131-136. 

Cratendune,  see  Cradendene. 

Cravat,  ii.  260. 

Creca,  see  Craike. 

Crediton,  ii.  444,  501. 

Crete,  ii.  342. 

Crimes,  iii.  242. 

Croats,  i.  298. 

Cronuchomme,  see  Evesham. 

Cross,  St.,  ii.  120,  121. 

Cross,  True,  i.  Ixxii ;  ii.  497  ;  iii.  226. 

Cross,  veneration,  ii.  337. 

Cross,  use  of,  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  29. 

Crosses:  Acca's,  iii.  144-147,  312: 
Aldhelm's,  ii.    496:    Cuthberht's, 


i"-  59,  99,  104,  105.  122  :  Oswald's, 
i.  10,  II,  51,  53  :  at  Abercorn,  ii. 
Ill  ;  iii.  311,  320:  at  Abingdon,  ii. 
121  ;  iii.  363  :  at  Aycliffe,  iii.  316  :  at 
Bellingham,  iii.  304  :  at  Bewcastle, 
i-  336,  337;  iii-  304.  3^6,  311,  316, 
319,  320  :  at  Bishop's  Stones,  ii. 
496  :  at  Bradford-on-Avon,  ii.  465  : 
at  Collingham,  i.  91,  92  :  at  Dews- 
bury,  iii.  304  :  at  Escomb,  ii.  296  : 
at  Gainford,  iii.  316:  at  liadden- 
ham,  iii.  218,  388:  at  Hartlepool, 
i.  92;  iii.  189,  303,  317:  at 
Heavenfield,  i.  10,  27  ;  iii.  303  : 
at  Ilkley,  iii.  316  :  at  Mayo,  iii, 
353  :  at  Norham,  iii.  385  :  at  Roth- 
bury,  iii.  316,  319  :  at  Ruthwell, 
i.  340;  iii.  269-271,  277,  278, 
280,  295,  304,  306,  309,  311,  316, 
317,  319,  320  :  atWhalley,  iii.  303  : 
at  Winwick,  i.  53. 

Crosses  made  by  St.  Eloi,  ii.  265  : 
memorial,  in  Northumbria,  i. 
clxxviii ;  iii.  302-320 :  stone,  i. 
xxxvi. 

Crosthwaite,  iii.  41. 

Crotairec,  Lombard  King,  i.  297. 

Crouch,  i.  142. 

Crowland  (Croyland,  Crudeland,  Cru- 
land),  i.  cxi,  clxxiv  ;  ii.  409,  410, 
413-416. 

Cruindmelus,  i.  Ixxxviii. 

Cuana,  iii.  190. 

Cuanna,  St.,  iii.  354. 

Cuckhamsley,  i.  41. 

Cuda  (Cutta),  ii.  428. 

Cudda,  Abbot  of  Lindisfarne,  i.  161  ; 

iii-  42,  47,  357: 
Cudsuida,  i.  clxiii. 
Cuenburga  (Cneuburga,  Quenburga), 

Abbess  of  Wimborne,  ii.  439  ;  iii. 

208,  235,  236. 
Cuggedic,  i.  332. 
Cuichelm,  see  Cwichelm. 
Cuicuin,  iii.  134. 
Cuidin,  see  Cuthwine. 
Culdees,  iii.  265. 
Cumberland,  i.   132,  222,   336,  338  ; 

ii.  241  ;  iii.  303  :  dialect,  iii.  91. 
Cumbrae,  iii.  196. 
Cumbria,  i.  8,  34,  132,  133. 
Cummian,    St.,    Abbot    of  lona,    i. 

cxvii,  321. 
Cumnor,  i.  41. 

Cunibert,  Abbot,  i.  clxxi  ;  iii.  348. 
Cunibert,  Bishop  of  Cologne,  i.  300. 
Cunibert  (Cunincpert,  Cunuberhtus), 

King  of  Lombards,  ii.  140  ;  iii.  362. 
Cunungaceastre,  see  Chester-Ie-Street. 


410 


INDEX 


Cuoemlicu,  iii.  202. 

Cures  for  fever,  iii.  249. 

Curses,  potent,  ii.  no. 

Cutha,  ii.  510,  511  ;  iii.  190. 

Cuthbald,  Abbot  of  Oundle,  ii.  235. 

Cuthbald,  Abbot  of  Peterborough,  i. 
334  ;  iii.  358. 

Cuthberht,  Abbot  of  Jarrow  and 
Wearmouth,   i.  Ixxxvii ;  iii,  365. 

Cuthberht,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
i.  Ii,  clxi ;  ii.  435  ;  iii.  227. 

Cuthberht,  St.,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne, 
i.  xcvii,  cxv,  clxxxvi,  98,  184,  221, 
222;  ii.  54,  106,  181,  400;  iii.    I- 

.  174,  192,  364  :  appears  in  visions, 
i.  Ixv,  Ixvi  :  asceticism,  iii.  19-31, 
205,  206  :  banner,  iii.  79-82  :  be- 
comes bishop,  i.  clxxiv ;  ii.  105, 
160  ;  iii.  31,  32,  199  :  body  buried, 
iii.  93,  94 :  body  not  corrupted, 
iii.  50,  51,  69-71,  75-77,  93: 
coffin,  iii.  67-70,  72,  85-99,  309, 
385  :  contemporaries,  friends,  and 
pupils,  i.  Ixxxvii,  Ixxxviii  :  iii.  106- 
174  :  death,  i.  xciii ;  iii.  42-47  :  dedi- 
cations, i.  71  ;  ii.  516  ;  iii.  36,  54, 
55)  59*  depicted  with  St.  Oswald, 
i.  60,  61,  68  :  dread  of  women,  iii. 
13-16,  35,  36  :  dress,  iii.  20  :  feast, 
iii.  83,  84,  384,  385  :  feretory,  iii. 
82-87  :  gloves,  iii.  87  :  Gospels,  iii. 
61,  98,  102,  329  :  grants  to,  i.  379  ; 
ii.  513  ;  iii.  55-57  =  grave  opened, 
i.  60,  95  :  literary  work,  iii.  loi, 
102  :  lives,  i.  xci-xciii,  cvii-cix  : 
miracles,  i.  Ixxxiv  ;  ii.  240,  241  ; 
iii.  11-13,  16-18,  21-23,  28,  34-37, 
44,  48,  49,  56,  198,  199,  385  :  mis- 
sionary labours,  iii.  10-12,  33-37, 
40,  41  :  monk,  iii.  4:  monuments, 
iii.  90,  91  :  oratory,  iii.  121  :  pec- 
toral cross,  iii.  99  :  portable  altar, 
iii.  100,  loi  :  preaching,  iii.  19  : 
Prior  of  Lindisfarne,  iii.  18-20: 
prophesies  Aldfrid's  accession,  ii. 
149  :  and  Ecgfrid's  death,  ii.  107- 
109:  relics,  i.  60;  iii.  45,  51-54, 
57-105,  108,  207  :  ring,  iii.  98,  99  : 
St.  John's  Gospel,  iii.  102-104  : 
saintship  doubted,  iii.  89,  340  : 
shrine,  i.  67  ;  iii.  63-65,  78,  79, 
82  :  stone  cross,  iii.  104,  105,  122  : 
table,  iii.  385  ;  tames  animals,  ii. 
413  ;  iii.  22-29,  205,  206  :  travels 
after  death,  i.  59  ;  iii.  57-64,  107, 
200  :  window  in  York  Minster,  iii. 
92. 

Cuthberht,  comes  Hwicciorum,  i. 
clxiii, 


Cuthburga  (Coenburg),  Queen,  Ab- 
bess of  Wimborne,  i.  cxliv  ;  ii. 
220,  439,  477,  494,   504  ;   iii.  232- 

236,  347-  ... 
Cutherston,  iii.  61. 
Cuthgils,  ii.  32. 
Cuthred,  i.  cxlv,  clxvii,  42. 
Cuthwine,  ancestor  of  Ini,  ii.  428. 
Cuthwine,    Bishop    of  Dunwich,    ii. 

419. 
Cuthwine,  King,  ii.  508,  510-512. 
Cuthwulf,  iii.  190. 
Cutta,  see  Cuda. 
Cwantawic,  see  Etaples. 
Cwichelm,    Bishop   of   Rochester,   i. 

clxxxiv  ;  ii.  49. 
Cwichelm,  son  of  Cynegils,  i.  41,  42, 

49. 
Cwichelm's  hlaew,  see  Cuckhamsley. 
Cyneberht  (Kinbert),  Bishop  of  Lind- 

sey,  i.  cv,  clxxxvi ;  ii.  402. 
Cyneburga    (Cyniburga,    Kineburga, 

Kyneburga),    Saint  and  Queen,  i. 

40,   74,    122,   183,   223,    331,  348; 

ii.  387  ;  iii.  209,  349,  388. 
Cyneburga,  see  also  Kineburga,  Kuni- 

burga. 
Cynefrid,    Abbot    of  Collingham,    i. 

378  ;  ii.  256,  403. 
Cynegils,  King  of  Wessex,  i.  clxxxii, 

39-42,  49,  74 ;  ii.  50. 
Cynehard,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  ii. 

447. 
Cynehard,  brother  of  Sigeberht,   iii. 

386. 
Cynemund   (Cynimund),    i.    77  ;    iii. 

49. 
Cynesuitha  (Cyneswitha),  St.,  i.  126, 

223,  331.  348  ;  ii.  425  ;  iii-  209. 
Cynewalch,  see  Coinwalch. 
Cynewulf  the  /Etheling,  ii.  430. 
Cynewulf,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  iii. 

276. 
Cynewulf,  King  of  Wessex,  i.  clxxi  j 

ii.  121,  431. 
Cynewulf,  poet,  iii.  266. 
Cynfedw,  i.  15,  131. 
Cyniberht,  Abbot,  ii.  136. 
Cyniburga,  see  Cyneburga. 
Cynibill,  i.  141,  154. 
Cynifrid,  physician,  iii.  215. 
Cynred,  i.  clxxi. 
Cynric,  ii.  32,  428. 
Cynuise,  wife  of  Penda,  i.  126,  127. 
Cyprian,  St.,  i.  276;  ii.  339. 
Cyprus,  i.  229,  232  ;  ii.  327,  340. 
Cyril  of  Alexandria,  ii.  315. 
Cyrus,    Patriarch   of  Constantinople, 

ii.  342,  353- 


INDEX 


411 


Cyssa,  see  Cissa. 
Cyssebui,  ii.  119. 

Dacre,  i.  133  ;  ii.  108;  iii.  209. 
Daeccanhaam,  i.  clxviii. 
Daegberht,  see  Dagohert. 
Daeglesford,  see  Daylesford. 
Daglingworth,  i.  316. 
Dagobert  i.,   King  of  the  Franks,  i. 

100,  293-300 ;  ii.  265,  268  ;  iii.  1S6. 
Dagobert    II.,    King  of  Austrasia,   i. 

clxxxi,  302  ;  ii.  57,  90;  iii.  2or. 
Dagobert  ill.,  King  of  the  Franks,  i. 

clxxxii. 
Daldun  (Dalton-le-Dale),  iii.  150. 
Dalfinus,    Count    of  Lyons,    i.    163, 

164. 
Dalreudini,  i.  Ixxxvi. 
Dalriada,  iii.  205. 
Dalton,  O.  M.,  i.  clxxvii. 
Dalton,  Yorks,  iii.  157. 
Dalton-le-Dale,  iii.  150. 
Daltun,  see  Dalton-le-Dale. 
Damasus,  Pope,  i.  264  ;  ii.  141. 
Damian,  Bishop  of  Pavia,  ii.  76. 
Damian,     Bishop    of     Rochester,    i. 

cxxxiii,  clxxxiv,  251,  317. 
Damnonia,  ii.  443. 
Dances,  public,  ii.  335. 
Dancing  on  a  grave,  iii.  236. 
Dandie  Dinmont,  i.  338. 
Danes,  i.  cxxiii,  cxxxi,  cxxxii,  369  ; 

iii.  309,  310. 
Daniel    (Danihel),    Bishop   of  Win- 
chester,   i.    cv,    cxiv,    cxliv,    cxlv, 

cliii-clv,    clxi,    clxvii,    clxxxv ;    ii. 

137,  427,  441,  447-4Si>  494,  495> 

502  ;  iii.  348,  373. 
Dante,  i.  Ixxxv  ;  iii.  289,  352. 
Danube,  ii.  61. 

Darent  (Tarent),  river,  i.  cl ;  ii.  449. 
Darlington,  iii,  55. 
Dartmoor,  ii.  458. 
Dating  methods,  i.  cxxii,  cxxiii ;   see 

also  Anno  Domini. 
David,  King  of  Scotland,  iii.  15. 
David,  St.,  i.  20. 
Daylesford  (Daeglesford),  i.  clvii. 
Deacons,  duties,  iii.  250,  251. 
Deaf  and  dumb  cured,  iii.  i53j   I54j 

166,  167. 
Dealwin,  i.  cxiii. 
Deaniton,  i.  cxlix. 
Debin,  river,  i.  152. 
Deda,  Abbot,  i.  cv. 
Dedications  :        ^bbe,      iii.      389  : 

y^thelburga,  iii.  232,  391  :  ^thel- 

drytha,   iii.   390  :  Aidan,  i.  98  ;  iii. 

351:  Aldhelm,  ii.  499:  Botulf,   i. 


137;  "J-  356:  Chad,  i.  357;  iii. 
359:  Cross,  ii.  120:  Cuthberht, 
iii.  36,  54,  55,  59:  Eanswitha, 
iii.  186,  386:  Eata,  iii.  384:  Fur- 
sey,  iii.  355  :  Hilda,  iii.  388:  Mil- 
burga,  iii.  21 1,  389:  Mildred,  iii. 
227,  390,  391  :  Oswald,  i.  50,  70- 
73,  80;  iii.  351  :  Oswin,  i.  87; 
iii.  351  :  Peter,  ii.  472  :  Sexburga, 
iii.  390 :  Virgin  Mary,  iii.  387: 
Werburgh,  iii.  221,  390,  391. 

Dedications  changed,  iii.  306. 

Deerhurst  (Deorhurst),  i.  202 ;  ii. 
294,  389. 

Deira,  i.  8,  34,  75,  76,  79,  83,  93, 
125,  I33»  134,  183,  214,  221  ;  u. 
51,  53,  228,  229,  504;  iii.  303. 

Deira,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxvi. 

Deira,  Kings  of,  i.  clxxxii,  clxxxiii. 

Deirewald  (Beverley),  iii.  155. 

Deheubarth,  ii.  488. 

De  la  Mare,  Prior,  i.  90. 

Deluge,  iii.  283-285. 

Demon  thrashes  a  c}ueen,  ii.  100,  loi. 

Demoniacs,  ii.  335. 

Demons,  sacrifice  to,  iii.  249. 

Dene,  i.  cl ;  ii.  448. 

Denesmor,  iii.  36. 

Denewald,  iii.  234. 

Denisesburn,  i.  14. 

Denmark,  i.  30  ;  iii.  228. 

Deodato,  Bishop,  ii.  58  ;  iii.  362. 

Deorhurst,  see  Deerhurst. 

Deprivation  of  bishops,  alleged  synod, 
ii.  82. 

Derawude,  see  Beverley. 

Derby,  iii.  221. 

Derbyshire,  i.  124,  125,  328. 

Dereham,  i.  121  ;  iii.  223. 

Derili,  iii.  366. 

Dervishes,  i.  Ix. 

Derwentwater,  iii.  40. 

Desiderius  (Didier),  Bishop  of  Cahors, 
i.  100,  296. 

Deusdedit  (Frithonas),  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  i.  cxxiv,  cxxxii,  cxxxiv, 
clviii,  clxxxiv,  212,  247-250,  308, 
322,  331.;."-  64;  iii.  227. 

Deventer,  iii.  229. 

Devil,  vexed  by,  iii.  256. 

Devil  worship  destroyed  in  Mercia, 

"•  35-  „      „ 

Devon,  1.  39  ;  n,  430,  447,  458,  487  ; 

iii.  358. 

Dewsbury,  iii,  304. 

Dialect,  Cumberland,  iii.  91. 

Dialect,  Northumbrian,  iii.  109,  307. 

Dialects,  English,  iii.  266,  275,  276. 

Dianius,  Bishop  of  Cresarea,  i.  259. 


412 


INDEX 


Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography, 

i.  clxxvi. 
Dicul  (Dicuil),  priest,  i.  115  ;  ii.  114, 

115,  454;  iii.  352. 
Diddlebury,  ii.  262. 
Didier,  see  Desiderius. 
Dilington,  i.  clxxi. 
Dilston,  iii.  145. 
Dimuldehale,  iii.  192. 
Dioceses  divided,  i.  xxx,  clix,  clxvi  ; 

"•  51-55.  103,  104,  174,  184,  419, 

448. 
Dioceses,    division,    false   decree,    ii. 

127. 
Dionysius   Exiguus,  i.   cxxii  ;   ii.   25, 

315. 
Discussion,  religious,   prohibited,    11. 

63. 

Diuma,  Bishop  of  Mercia,  i.  clxxxv, 

30,  123,  134,  13s. 
Divorce,  ii.  30,  167  ;  iii.  362. 
Documents  in  old  walls,  i.  cxxxii. 
Doddington,  iii.  3. 
Doddo,  ii.  388,  389. 
Dofreceastre,  ii.  392. 
Domna  Ebba,  iii.  210. 
Domnall  Breac,  iii.  205. 
Domneva,  see  Eormenburga. 
Domnonia,  ii.  487. 
Domnus,  see  Donus. 
Don,  river,  iii,  366. 
Doncaster,  ii.  128;  iii.  349. 
Donus  (Domnus),    Pope,    i.    clxxxi ; 

ii.  65-68. 
Dorbeni,  Abbot  of  lona,  iii.  138. 
Dorchester     (Dorceceastre,      Dorcic, 

Dorocina),  i.  40-46,  323,   328  ;  ii. 

441. 
Dorchester,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxiv. 
Dorcic,  see  Dorchester. 
Dormundcaster,  see  Caistor. 
Dorocina,  see  Dorchester. 
Dorset,  i.  39;  ii.  447. 
Doulting  (Duluting),   i.  clii ;  ii.  450, 

494.  495.  499. 
Dover,  i.   cxxxix,    149 ;  ii.  298,  357, 

392,  492,  496. 
Down,  Cuthberht,  iii.  88. 
Drave,  i,  72. 
Dreams,  iii.    187,   188,   219;  see  also 

Visions. 
Dress  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  26,  27. 
Driffield,  ii.  220  ;  iii.  201. 
Drinking,  iii.  383. 
Drinks  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  29. 
Droitwich,  i.  clviii. 
Drought  in  Sussex,  ii.  116. 
Drought  in  Yorkshire,  iii.  168. 
Druids,  i.  27. 


Drumalban,  iii.  138,  139. 

Drummelzier,  iii.  36. 

Drunkenness  of  clergy,  iii.  238,  239. 

Drust,  iii.  366. 

Dryhthelm  and  his  visions,  i.  Ixii,  1 18  ; 

ii.  156,  403;  iii.  122-130,  341. 
Drysdale,  iii.  36. 
Dublin,  ii.  152  ;  iii.  221. 
Ducks,  Cuthberht's,  iii.  22,  23. 
Duddon,  river,  i.  379. 
Duddondale,  i.  379. 
Dufgal,  son  of  Sumerled,  iii.  78. 
Dufton,  iii.  59,  61. 
Dugdale,  Monasticon,  i.  clxxvii. 
Duin  Nectain,  see  Dun  Nechtain. 
Duluting,  see  Doulting. 
Dumb,  iii.  153,  154,  166,  167. 
Dumbarney,  i.  36. 
Dumbarton,  iii.  34. 
Dumfriesshire,  iii.  36,  37. 
Dunbar,  ii.  99  ;  iii.  164,  196. 
Duncadh,  Abbot,  iii.  138,  139. 
Dundalk,  iii.  354. 
Dunedin,  i.  9. 
Dunfermline,  iii.  88. 
Dungueirn,  i.  9. 

Dun  Nechtain,  battle  of,  ii.  106-109. 
Dun  Nechtan,  see  Dun  Nechtain. 
Dunne,   nun,  i.  clxi,  clxii. 
Dunnechtyn,  see  Dun  Nechtain. 
Dunnerdale,  i.  379. 
Dunnichen,  see  Dun  Nechtain. 
Dunstan,    St.,    i.  95  ;   ii.    37°,  497> 

498  ;  iij.  20,  54,  384. 
Duntun,  i.  clxvi. 
Dunutinga,  i.  379. 
Dunwich,  i.  249  ;  ii.  419 ;  iii.  360. 
Dunwich,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxiv. 
Durham,  i.  xxxiii,  Ixx,  Ixxvii,  Ixxix, 

8,  60,  70,  85-87,  89,  91,  98;   ii. 

241,  279,  298  ;  iii.  2,  9,  14-16,  31, 

55,   64,   79,   82,   91,  92,   95,   105, 

207,  303,  309,  312,  319,  341- 
Durham  Castle  Chapel,  iii.  59. 
Durham  Cathedral,  i.  59,  95  ;  iii.  59, 

64,  65. 
Durham  Liber  Vitae,  i.  cxvi,  cxvii. 
Durham  monks,  i.  21. 
Durham,  relics  at,  i.  66,  67,  94,  95. 
Durham  Tower  injured  by  lightning, 

iii.  87. 
Dyfed,  ii.  488. 

Dyfnaint,  King  of,  see  Geraint. 
Dykes,  i.  41. 
Dynasties,   Anglo-Saxon,   i.    clxxxii- 

clxxxiv. 
Dynbaer,  ii.  99. 
Dynne,  iii.  237. 
Dysentery,  iii.  256. 


INDEX 


413 


Eaba  (Eafha),  leader  of  the  Mercians, 

i.  218. 
Eaba,  wife  of  /Ethelwalch,  i.  335  ;  ii. 

"3- 

Eabbe,  see  /Ebba. 
Eadbald,  Bishop,  i.  clxxi,  clxxiv. 
Eadbald  (^-Ethelbald),  King  of  Kent, 
i.   clxxxii,  240-244  ;  iii.    186,   225, 

347- 
Eadberht,  Abbot,  i.  clxvii. 
Eadberht,  Bishop  of  Selsey,  i.  cxlviii, 

cl  ;  ii.  448. 
Eadberht  (Eadberth),  King  of  Kent, 

i.  cxxxix  ;  ii.  358. 
Eadberht  (^dbryhl),  King  of  North- 

umbria,  i.  Iviii,  58  ;  ii.  503,  511. 
Eadberht,  leader  of  the  Mercians,  i. 

218. 
Eadberht,  St.,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne, 

i.  clxxxvi,  99  ;  ii.  181  ;  iii.  52,  70, 

106,  107. 
Eadbirht,  i.  clxxi. 
Eadburga,  St.,  Abbess  of  Minster  in 

Thanet,  i.  cxiv  ;  iii.  211,  227,  229, 

230,  233,  237,  388. 
Eadburga,  Abbess  of  Repton,  ii.  414, 

418  ;  iii.  203,  212. 
Eadda,  Bishop,  see  Hoeddi. 
Eadfrid  (Eadfrith),  Bishop  of  Lindis- 
farne, i.  xcii,  crii,  clxxxvi  ;  ii.  223, 

407,  506  ;  iii.  57,  70,  102,  108-III, 

119-122,  132. 
Eadfrid  (Eadfrith),  son  of  /Edwin,  i. 

49;  ii.  418. 
Eadfrith,  iii.  354. 
Eadgar,  Bishop  of  Lindsey,  i.  clxxxvi ; 

ii.  401. 
Eadgar,  King,  i.  cxxi,  cxxxiv,  cxlvi, 

137;   ii.  44,    194,    196,    396;    iii. 

216,  222,  386,  391. 
Eadhaed  (Eadh^d),  Bishop  of  Lindsey 

and  Ripon,  i.  clxxxvi,  212  ;  ii.  35, 

50,  182,  183,  200,  227,  401. 
Eadmer,  i.  cxii,  95. 
Eadmund,   King   of  the   English,    i. 

94;  ii.  499  ;  iii.  63,  197. 
Eadred,  Abbot  of  Carlisle,  iii.  60,  62. 
Eadric,    King    of    Kent,     i.     cxxxv, 

cxxxvi,  clxvii,  clxxxiii  ;  ii.  32,  126, 

129,  130,  137,  356,  361,  368. 
Eadric,  son  of  Ida,  ii.  511. 
Eadulf,    King    of    East   Anglia,  see 

Aldwulf. 
Eadulfingaham,  ii.  513. 
Eadwald,  son  of  Wilfrid,  iii.  364. 
Eadwulf,    King    of   Northumbria,    i. 

clxxxiii  ;  ii.  221,  222,  502-504. 
Eafha,  see  Eaba. 
Eahfrid,  ii.  367,  407,  465  ;  iii.  372. 


Eahlston,  Bishop,  see  Wahlstod. 

Ealdberhl,  iii.  203. 

Ealdcyre,  ii.  442. 

Ealdfrid,  see  Aldfrid. 

Ealdred     (Aldred),     Archbishop     of 

York,  i.  cxii. 
Ealdulf,  i.  cxlviii. 
Ealdwine    (Aldwin,     Alwin,    Elwin, 

Wor),  Bishop  of  Lichfield,  i.  cxl, 

cliii,    clxi,  clxxv,    clxxxvi,   70 ;    ii. 

382,  401. 
Ealdwulf,  see  Aldwulf. 
Earner,  son  of  Ongen,  i.  48. 
Eanfleda  (/Eonfleda),  Queen,  wife  of 

Oswy,    i.    76,    77,   157,    158,   161, 

162,  168,  219,  226;    iii.  198,  200, 

201. 
Eanfrid,  King  of  Bernicia,  i.  clxxxii, 

5-7,  9,  75  ;  iii-  349- 
Eanfrid,  son  of /Edwin,  i.  55.' 
Eangyth  (Eangytha),  i.  cxiv  ;  iii.  233. 
Eanmund,  Abbot  of  Craike,  ii.  505  ; 

iii..  132,  133,  136. 
Eanrid,  King  of  Northumbria,  i.  cxvi. 
Eanswitha,  Saint  and  Abbess,  i.  244  ; 

iii.  186,  386. 
Eappa,    head   of    Selsey   Abbey,    ii. 

^^5.  117. 
Earconberht,  King  of  Kent,  i.  clxxxii, 

121,  160,    162,  243-246,  248,  320; 
iii.  215,  219,  220,  362. 

Earcongota,  Abbess  of  Brie,  i.  121  ; 
iii.  219,  223,  224. 

Earconwald  (Ercnuwald,  Erconwald, 
Erkenwald,  Herconwald),  Bishop 
of  London,  i.  cvii,  cxlvii,  clxv, 
clxvii,  clxviii,  clxxii,  clxxiii,  clxxxiv  ; 
ii-  42,  43,  45.  46,  157,  420-422, 
^  477  ;  iii.  230,  232,  347,  391. 

Eardecanut,  see  Hardecanute. 

Eardred,  Bishop  of  Dunwich,  ii.  419. 

Eardulf,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  iii. 
60,  62. 

Earhyth,  i.  clxxiii. 

Earle,  Land  Charters,  i.  cxxi. 

Earmundeslea,  i.  cxiv. 

Earn,  ii.  40. 

Easington,  iii.  199. 

East  Anglia,  i.  xxviii,  cv,  48,  49,  100- 

122,  307,  357,  358  ;  ii.  I,  417-420  ; 
iii.  189,  213,  352. 

East   Anglia,    Bishopric   divided,    ii. 

52,  419- 
East  Anglia,  Bishops,  i.  249  ;  see  also 

Dunwich. 
East   Anglia,    Kings   of,    i.    clxxxii- 

clxxxiv. 
East  Saxons,  see  Essex. 
Easter,  i.  xciv,  cxxii,  cxxv,   19,  28, 


414 


INDEX 


29,  95-97,  156-159,  164,  188-191, 

193,  199,  200,  205,  213,  220,  226, 
322,  352,  354;  ii.  6,  26,  156,  159, 
201,  310,  312-316,  365,  403,  406, 
48S-490;    iii.    45,    137-139,    173, 

194,  241,  255,256,  357,  363,  366. 
Easterige,  see  Eastry. 
Eastmeon,  i.  336. 

Eastry  (Easterige),  i.  247. 
Eata,    Bishop    of    Lindisfarne     and 
Hexham,   i.   cvii,   clxxiv,    clxxxvi, 

30,  98,  184,  199,  205,  221,  222, 
367;  ii.  53,  103,  105,  511,  515; 
iii.  5,  6,  8,   18,  20,  31,  57,    154, 

347,  384- 
Eatberht,  see  Eadberht. 
Eawa,  ii.  380. 
Ebba,  Abbot,  ii.  232. 
Ebba,  St.,  see  /Ebba. 
Ebba,  mother  of  Leobgytha,  iii.  237. 
Ebb's  Nook,  iii.  389. 
Ebbsfleet,  iii.  226. 
Ebchester,  iii.  204,  389. 
Eboriacum,  iii.  223. 
Ebroin,  Mayor  of  the  Palace,  i.  302, 

303,  305,  306;   ii.  I,  33,   55,   56, 

90 ;  iii.  358. 
Eburleigh,  see  Everley. 
Ecburga,  see  Huaetburga. 
Ecca,  i.  cxxxvi. 
Ecce,  see  Acca. 
Eccles  (Scotland),  iii.  36. 
Ecgbald  (Ecgbalt,  Egbalt),  Abbot,  i. 

clxviii,  clxxiii-clxxv. 
Ecgberht    (Egbert),    Archbishop    of 

York,  i.  xliv,  xlv,  xlvii,  Iii,  xcvi, 

xcvii,   xcix,  cxviii,   clxxv  ;  ii.  162, 

164,  511,  515,  516;  iii.    142,  172, 

173,  266. 
Ecgberht,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  ii. 

205  ;  iii.  131,  346. 
Ecgberht,    King   of  Kent,    i.  cxxiv, 

cxxxvi,  cxlvii,  clxii,   clxxxiii,  146- 

148,  216,  251,  306,  317,  329;  ii. 

32,   125;   iii.  210,  219,  225,  361, 

362. 
Ecgberht  (Egherte),    King   of  West 

Saxons,  i.  cxvi,  131  ;  ii.  387. 
Ecgberht,    St.,  i.  97,   363;    ii-  403- 

406,  413;  iii.  132,  138,  139. 
Ecgfrid,  Bishop,  ii.  516. 
Ecgfrid  (Ecgfrith),  King  of  Northum- 

bria,    i.    clxxiv,    clxxxiii,    clxxxvi, 

126,  223,  225,  226,  337,  340,  348, 

350,  377,  379,  384  ;  ii-  21,  34-3^, 
40-42,  47,  49,  50,  55,  73,  99,  102- 
iio,  118,  119,  127,  147,  149,  153, 
155,  157,  158,  174,  225,  228,  254, 
277,  299,  301,  405,  502;   lii.  31, 


33,  55,   131,  132,    151,   198,  199, 
206,  209,  213,  218,  225,  311,  312, 

349,  358,  359,  363,  366. 

Ecgred  (Egred),  Bishop  of  Lindis- 
farne, i.  liv. 

Ecgric,  King,  see  Egric. 

Ecgrid,  son  of  Eaba,  ii.  515. 

Ecgulf,  ii.  511. 

Ecgwald,  sub-regulus,  i.  clxviii  ;  see 
also  Egwald. 

Ecgwine  (Ecgwin,  Ecgwyn,  Egwin, 
Eggwin),  Bishop  of  Worcester,  i. 
cxiii,  cxxx,  cliii,  civ,  clvii,  clxii- 
clxiv,   clxxxvi  ;    ii.    378,    390-398, 

425,  495  ;  iii-  347- 
Echdach,  see  Ceolwulf. 
Echfrith,  Abbot  of  Glastonbury,  ii. 

407. 
Ecwulfingham,  ii.  513. 
Edburga,  Queen  of  Mercia,  ii.  387. 
Edelm,  ii.  51 1. 
Edelv^'in   (Edelwine,   Ediluini,    Edil- 

wini),   Prsefect,  i.  80,  92,  93  ;  iii. 

192. 
Edelwine    (Ethelwine),     brother     of 

Coinwalch,  iii.  361. 
Edenhall,  iii.  59,  60. 
Edessa,  i.  230. 
Edgar,  King,  see  Eadgar. 
Edilred,  see  /Ethelred. 
Edilric,  see  ^thelric. 
Ediluini,  see  Edelwin. 
Ediluuard,  see  ^thelw^eard. 
Edilwald,  see  Oidilwald,  ^thelvi^old. 
Edilwini,  see  Edelwin. 
Edinburgh,  i.  9,   22,    129,    130  ;   iii. 

36. 
Edith,  sister  of  ^Ethelstan,  i.  72. 
Edlingham,  ii.  513. 
Edlu,  iii.  236. 
Edmund,  monk,  iii.  58. 
Edmund,  priest,  i.  85. 
Edmund,  Saint  and  King,  iii.  54,  88, 

94,  352-. 
Ednam,  iii.  36. 
Edric,  see  Aithelhere,  Eadric. 
Education,    ii.     365-368,     see     also 

Schools. 
Edward  i.,  iii.  166,  228. 
Edward  il.,  i.  Ixxvii. 
Edward  ill.,  iii.  16,  81. 
Edward  vi.,  i.  cix. 
Edward  the  Black  Prince,  ii.  90. 
Edward  the  Confessor,  i,  65. 
Edwine,  see  ^dwin. 
Edwinesburht,  i.  1 30. 
Edwinstown,  ii.  197. 
Eels  caught  in  nets,  ii.  116. 
Ega,  see  ^^^ga. 


INDEX 


415 


Egbalt,  see  Ecgbald. 

Egberht,  Egbert,  see  Ecgberht. 

Egburga,  see  Huaetburga. 

Egelwin,  Bishop  of  Durham,  i.  85. 

Egelwine,  Abbot,  iii.  228. 

Egeria,  ii.  173. 

Egghald,  i.  clxxiii. 

Eggo,  Count  of  Lincoln,  i.  clxxv. 

Eggwin,  see  Ecgwin. 

Egherte,  King,  see  Ecgberht. 

Egica,    King    of    the    Visigoths,    i. 

clxxxi. 
Eginhard,  ii.  195. 
Eglingham,  ii.  513. 
Egmond,  i.  74. 
Egred,  see  Ecgred. 
Egric  (Ecgric),  King  of  East  Anglia, 

i.  clxxxii,  49,  131. 
Egwald,  Bishop,  i.  cxlviii. 
Egwald,  see  also  Ecgwald. 
Egwin,  see  Ecgwin. 
Egypt,  i.  xxvfi,   170-173,    180,  229- 

232,  255,  275,  276,  280,  287  ;  iii. 

3i3>  314,  316. 
Ejusdensca,  i.  129,  130. 
Elbe,  i.  298,  302. 
Elfirge,  iii.  70. 
Elfled,  see  /Elfleda. 
Elford,  ii.  41. 
Elfrida,  see  .Elfthrytha. 
Elfthritha,  see  ^Ifthrytha. 
Elfwald,  see  /Elfwold. 
Elge,  see  Ely. 
Eligius,  see  Eloi,  St. 
Ellerton,  i,  79. 
Ellesmere,  i.  52. 
Ellysden  in  Ryddesdale,  iii.  59. 
Elmet,  iii.  187. 

Elmham, Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxiv  ;  ii.  419. 
Elmham,  North  (Norfolk),  i.  310. 
Elmham,  South  (Suffolk),  i.  310-316. 
Elogius,  see  Eloi,  St. 
Eloi   (Eligius,    Elogius),  St.,    Bishop 

and  jeweller,   i.    xxxvii,    116;    ii. 

259,  264-268,   270,    296,  297  ;  iii. 

354,  355. 
Elsdon,  iii.  59. 
Elwin,  see  Ealdwine. 
Ely,  i.  62,   121,   137  ;  ii.  36,  39,  90, 

409,   419;  iii.   184,  213-220,  223, 

3S7,  390.  ^ 
Embleton,  iii.  59. 
Embrun,  ii.  9. 
Emerita,  ii.  4. 
Emme  (Emma),  wife  of  Eadbald,  i. 

243- 
Emme   (Emmo),    Bishop  of  Sens,  i. 

306. 
Emmelia,  i.  255. 


Emmyldon  (Embleton),  iii.  59. 
Emperors   of    Byzantium,    i.    clxxxi, 

clxxxii. 
Empire,  Eastern,  ii.  325-343. 
Empire,  Western,  i.  xiv,  xviii. 
Enamelling,  ii.  262,  266-268. 
Endowments,  i.  378,  379,  384. 
England,     Augustine's      mission,     i. 

xxiii-xxv. 
England,  evangelised  by  Irish,  i.  3. 
England,  Northern,  history,  i.  ix. 
English,     stubborn     and     barbarous 

spirit,  i.  16. 
Enigmas,  Aldhelm's,  iii.  378,  379. 
Eochaid,  see  Ceolwulf. 
Eoda,  i.  cxviii. 
Eoghenan    (Noenan),     King    of    the 

Picts,  i.  cxvi. 
Eolla,  Bishop,  i.  cl  ;  ii.  448,  449. 
Eolwulf,    King   of  the    Mercians,    i. 

cxlix. 
Eomer,  ii.  500. 

Eormelind  (Hermelinda),  iii.  362. 
Eormenbeorga,  i.  244. 
Eormenburga,  Queen,  wife  of  Ecgfrid, 

ii.  38,  41,  102,    107,   119;  iii.  206, 

209,  225,  362. 
Eormenburga(Domneva,Iorminburga, 

Irmenburga,   lurminburg),   wife   of 

Merwald,  i.  cxxxvii,  244,  248,  329  ; 

iii.  2IO,  225,  362. 
Eormengilda,  see  Ermenilda. 
Eormengitha,  St.,  i.  244. 
Eormenred,  son  of  Eadbald,  i.  243, 

244  ;  iii.  225,  362. 
Eorpwine,  Abbot,  iii.  136. 
Eosterwyn  (Eosterwine),  ii.  276,  299- 

301,  3'o6;  iii.  149,  366. 
Eoves,  swineherd,  ii.  393. 
Eowa,  see  Eva. 
Epiphanius    (Epifanius),    Bishop,    i. 

264  ;  ii.  68,  81. 
Epitaph,  poetical,  ii.  144,  145. 
Eppa,  ii.  372,  502. 
Epternach,  i.  60,  64,  71. 
Erchinwald  (Archenwald,  Erchinoald, 

Ercinwald),    Mayor  of  the  Palace, 

i.  116,  166,  301  ;  iii.  354,  355- 
Ercnuwald,  Erconwald,    see   Earcon- 

wald. 
Eremites,  ii.  334. 
Erith,  ii.  409. 

Erkenwald,  see  Earconwald. 
Ermenberga,  see  Eormenburga. 
Ermenilda  ( Eormengilda,  Ermengilda, 

Ermingild,    Herminhilda),    Abbess 

of  Ely,  wife  of  Wulfhere,  daughter 

of  Earconberht,    i.    cxxxvii,    121, 

320;  iii.  219,  220,  223,  362,  391. 


4i6 


INDEX 


Ermynge,  see  Ixminge. 

Erneshaw,  iii.  153,  154. 

Erwig  (Erviga),  King  of  the  ViSsigoths, 

i.  clxxxi ;  ii.  16. 
Escesdun,  i.  cxlv. 
Escomb  church,  ii.  278,  293-297. 
Esendic,  i.  332. 
Esi,  Abbot,  i.  cv. 
Esk,  river,  i.  129. 
Essex,  i.    xxviii,    cv,    138-155,    223, 

241,   307  ;  ii.    170,  364,  420-426  ; 

iii-  357,  363- 
Essex,  Bishops  of,  i.   clxxxiv,  clxxxv, 

249. 
Essex,  Kings  of,  i.  clxxxii-clxxxiv. 

Estrefeld,  ii.  197. 

Etan,  see  Tetta, 

Etaples       (Cwantawic,       Quantovic, 

Quentovic),  i-  306;  ii.  55,  56,  320. 
Etha  the  anchorite,  iii.  135. 
Ethcealchy,  see  Chelsea. 
Ethel,  see  /Ethel — ,  Albert,  Oidil-. 
Etho  (Etto),  St.,  iii.  352. 
Eto,  see  Tetta. 
Eucharist,    i.    27,    28 ;    ii.    338 ;    iii. 

264. 
Eucharist  for  the  dead,  ii.  337. 
Eugenius  I.,  Pope,  i.  165,  237. 
Eulalia,  nun,  ii.  477  ;  iii.  232. 
Euphues,  iii.  375. 
Europe,  Central,  ii.  297,  298, 
Eusebius,  see  Huaetberht. 
Eusebius,  Bishop  of  Cajsarea,  i.  260, 

261. 
Eusebius  Scotigena,  iii.  49. 
Eustathius  of  Sebaste,  i.  259,  285. 
Eutropius,  i.  187. 
Eutychians,  ii.  336. 
Eva,  Queen  of  Mercia,  ii.  387. 
Eva  (Eowa),  son  of  Pubba,  i.  48. 
Everley  (Eburleagh),  i.  cxliii. 
Evesham    (Cronuchomme),    i,     cxiii, 

cxv,   cxxx,  civ,   clxii-clxiv,  clxxiv  ; 

ii.  278,  290,  390-397,  425  ;  iii-  356, 

386. 
Ewes  in  Eskdale,  iii.  36. 
Exaltation  of  the  Cross,  ii.  350. 
Exanford,  iii.  56. 
Excommunication,  i.  151. 
Excommunication  of  the  Pope,  i.  238. 
Exe,  river,  i.  cliii ;  ii.  501. 
Exeter,  ii.  443,  444  ;  iii.  368. 
Exmoor,  ii.  491. 
Eyre,  Archbishop,  i.  clxxvi ;  iii.  18. 

Faelan,  see  Fullan. 
Faelchu,  Abbot,  iii.  139. 
Faerpinga,  i.  135. 
Fahren,  i.  21. 


Failbhe,  iii.  137. 
Fairway  Strait,  ii.  105. 
Faith,  profession  of,  ii.  76. 
Fanaticism  of  ascetics,  ii.  63. 
Fara,  St.,  iii.  223. 
Faremoutier-en-Brie,  i.  121,  167  ;  iii. 

183,  223-225. 
Faricius,  Abbot  of  Abingdon,  i.  cxi ; 

ii.  452. 
Fame,  i.    Ixv,    clxxiv,    21  ;  ii.    105  ; 

iii.    I,  21,   22,  24,  26,  42,  70,  94, 

120,  123,  192,  351- 
Farnham,  i.  clxvii,  71. 
Faro,  Bishop  of  Meaux,  i,  306. 
Fasts  and  fasting,  i.    18,   28,  29  ;  iii. 

156,  243,   245,  246,  259,  260,   334, 

335- 
Faulda,  i.  cxxvii. 
Fearn,  iii.  352. 

Feast,  St.  Cuthberht's,  iii.  83,  84. 
Felgild,    hermit   of   Fame,    iii.    121, 

122. 
Felix,  Bishop   of  Aries,  ii.    72,  73  ; 

iii.  352. 
Felix,   Bishop  of  East  Anglia,  i.  cv, 

31,  320. 
Felix,  monk  of  Crowland,  i.  cxi  ;  ii. 

407,  409. 
Fenelon,  i.  204. 
Fens,  i.  332  ;  ii.  408  ;  iii.  368, 
Fercanhamstede,  i.  clxxiii. 
Feretory,  St.  Cuthberht's,  iii.  82-87. 
Ferns,  iii.  187. 
Ferramere,  i.  cli ;  ii.  443. 
Ferryhill,  iii.  389. 
Fether  muthe,  i.  332, 
Ffolcburga,  Abbess,  i.  clxvi. 
Field  labour  done  by  women,  ii.  167. 
Fighting   prohibited    to    servants   of 

God,  iii.  260. 
Filey,  i.  70. 
Filioqtie,  ii.  71. 
Fina,  ii.  149,  150. 
Finan,  St.,  Bishop  of  Northumbria,  i. 

clxxxv,  94,  98,  99,   123,   135,  139, 

140,  158,  159;  ii.  160;  iii.  205. 
Finchale,  i.  205  ;  iii.  94. 
Finlog,  regulus  of  South  Munster,  i. 

loi  ;  iii.  354. 
Finn,  i.  98. | 
Fintan,    son   of  Finlog,    i.    loi  ;  iii. 

353- 
Fires,    i.    cxxxi :   at   new   moons,    ii. 

336. 

Firth  of  Tay,  ii   40,  109. 
Fiscesburna,  i.  cxlix. 
Fishing  taught  by  Wilfrid,  ii.  1 17. 
Fishlake,  iii.  59. 
Flamborough,  i.  70. 


INDEX 


417 


Fland  Fiona,  ii,  149,  150, 

Flanders,  iii.  228. 

Flavochat,    mayor   of  the   palace,    i. 

301. 
Fledanburgh,  i.  clvi  ;  ii.  390. 
Flemings,  i.  297. 
Flesh  of  sacrifices,  iii.  249. 
Flesh  of  unclean  animals,  iii.  261. 
Flesh,  see  also  Food. 
Flesh-eating,  iii.  257. 
Fleury,  iii.  340. 
Flodden,  iii.  82, 
Florence,  iii.  322. 
Florence   of   Worcester's    Chronicon, 

i.  cxiv. 
Fodder  for  king's  horses,  iii.  165. 
Foilan,  Foillan,  see  FuUan. 
Folcard,    Abbot   of  Thorney,  i.  cxii, 

137  ;  iii.  347. 
Folies,  i.  332. 
Folkestone,  i.  cxxxix,   244  ;  iii.   186, 

386. 
Fontmell,  river,  i.  clxx. 
Food,   animals   as,   iii.   256,    257  :  of 

nuns,  iii.  182:  unclean,  iii.  243. 
Forbes,    Bishop    A.    P.,    Kalendars 

of  Scottish  Saifits,  i.  clxxvi. 
Forceps,  silver,  iii.  66,  67,  71. 
Forcett  (Forsete),  iii.  59,  61. 
Ford,  Northumberland,  ii.  98. 
Fordred,  see  Forthere. 
Fordstreta,  ii.  129. 
Forgeries,    i.     cxx,    cxxiii-clxxv,    97, 

243,  329-331  ;  ii-  31,  45,  65,  96, 
97,  126,  243,  343,  350,  358,  359, 
363,  374,  378,  381,  390,  391,  402, 
415,  431,  448,  450,  453,  470,  501  ; 
iii._227,  228,  348,  367. 

Fornication,  iii.  239,  244,  251. 

Forsete,  see  Forcett. 

Forsham,  iii.  354. 

Forth,  i.  15,  21,  128-130;  ii.  40. 

Forthere  (Fordred,  Fortheri),  Bishop 
of  Sherborne,  i.  cxiv,  cliii-clv,  clxi, 
clxxxv  ;  ii.  372,  500-502. 

Fortheri,  bodyguard  of  ^dwin,  ii. 
500. 

Fortrenn,  ii.  107. 

Fosse,  i.  119,  120. 

Fosser,  John,  Prior  of  Durham,  iii. 

79. 
Fostat,  see  Cairo. 
Fowler,  Canon,  i.  clxxvi. 
Foxcombe  Hill,  i.  41. 
France,   ii.    72  ;  iii.    189,    312,    314, 

360. 
Francia,  iii.  39. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  St.,  ii.  413  ;  iii.  29. 
Franco,  monk,  iii.  58. 

VOL.  III. — 27 


Franconia,  ii.  348. 

Franks,  i.   xxvi,   115,   116,   293,   294, 

305  ;  ii.  90. 
Franks,  Kings  of  the,  i.  clxxxi,  clxxxii. 
Fredegar,  i.  clxxviii. 
Frederick   Barbarossa,    Emperor,    ii. 

241. 
Freeman,  E.  A.,  i.  ix. 
Freetha,  iii.  196. 
Freis,  see  Friesland. 
Freithbyrg,  ii.  58. 
Fresca,  river,  ii,  153,  507. 
Freshwell,  river,  i.  142. 
Fridberht,  see  P'rithuberht. 
Fridegils,  monk,  iii.  134. 
Fridegod,  see  Frithegoth. 
Fridogitha,  see  Frithogith. 
Fridovald,  see  Frithuwald. 
Friesland,  i.  xxxviii,  65  ;  ii.  56,   203, 

234,  406,  449  ;  iii.  140. 
Frignualdus,  Bishop,  i.  clxv. 
Frigyth,  iii.  196. 
Frith,  ii.  40. 

Frith  stool  at  Hexham,  i.  377. 
Frithegoth  (Fridegod),   poet,  i.   cxi ; 

ii.  243. 
Fritheston,    Bishop    of   Winchester, 

iii.  64,  98. 
Frithogith    (Fridogitha),     Queen     of 

Wessex,  i.  civ  ;  ii.  501  ;  iii.  40. 
Frithonas,  see  Deusdedit. 
Frithuberht   (Fridberht,  Fruidberht), 

Bishop  of  Hexham,  iii.  40,  142. 
Frithuwald  (Frithowald),  ealdorman, 

i.  cxlvii  ;  ii.  44,  46,  424, 
Frithuwald,    Bishop    of    Whitherne, 

iii.  34,  40. 
Frithuwald   (Fridovald,   Frithewald), 

monk,  i.  clix. 
Fritzlar,  iii.  235. 
Frohens-le-Grand,  iii.  354. 
Frome  (Froom),  i.  cxxviii,  cxliii ;  ii. 

465,  494,  496. 
Fruidberht,  see  Frithuberht. 
Fulda,  river,  ii.  257. 
Fulgentius,  St.,  ii.  347. 
Fullan  (Faelan,  Foilan,  Foillan),  St., 

i.   115,  116,  119,  120;  iii.  352. 
Fullingadich,  ii.  45. 
Furness,  iii.  58. 

Fursey  (Fursa,  Furseus),  St.,  i.  cvi, 
101-120;  ii.  453,  475;  iii.  341, 
352-356. 

Gadfred,  i.  clxv. 
Gsedyne,  i.  378. 
Gaeta,  ii.  354. 
Gai  Campi,  i.  128. 
Gainford,  iii.  131,  316. 


4i8 


INDEX 


Gala  Water,  i.  130. 
Galicia,  Spain,  ii.  4. 
Gall,  St.,  ii.  38. 
Gallicanism,  i.  204. 
Galloway,  iii.  34. 
Galtres,  iii.  131. 
Games,  iii.  2,  91. 
Gammack,  J.,  i.  clxxvi. 
Gangulf,  ii.  321,  322. 
Garionum,  i.  120. 
Gariston,  i.  80. 

Gateshead,  i.  76,  123;  iii.  351. 
Gaul,  i.  xvii,  xix,  xxi,  clxxviii,    174, 
181,    183,    210,  293;  iii.   39,  328, 

369- 
Gebmund      (Gemund,      Gemmund), 
Bishop   of    Rochester,    i.    cxxxvii, 
clx,    clxxiii,    clxxxiv ;   ii.    49,  361, 

363- 
Geddavverda,  i.  130. 
Geddinge,  i.  clxxii. 
Gelges,  i.  loi. 

Gemmund,  Gemund,  see  Gebmund. 
Genevieve,  ii.  264. 
Genoa,  i.  35,  36. 
George  i.,  i.  c. 

George,  Patriarch,  ii.  78,  79,  81,  330. 
Geraint(Geruntius),  King  of  Dyfnaint, 

ii.  430,  487. 
Gerald,  Archbishop,  iii.  166. 
Germain,  St.,  Bishop  of  Paris,  ii.  264. 
Germans,  struggle  with  Slavs,  i.  299. 
Germanus,  i.  170. 

Germanus,  Bishop  (mythical),  i.  cxlvi. 
Germanus,  Patriarch,  ii,  342. 
Germanus,  Prior,  i.  90. 
Germanus,  St.,  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  i. 

122. 
Germany,  i.  xxxviii,  xxxix,  cxiii,  cxiv  ; 

ii.  403,  405,  450;  iii.  230,  312. 
Germinus   (Jurmanus),    St.,    i.     122, 

137  ;  iii.  356. 
Gerontius,  i.  cxiv  ;  ii.  365. 
Geruntius,  King,  see  Geraint. 
Geve,  Abbot,  iii.  62. 
Gewissi,  i.  39  ;  ii.  130,  131,  134  ;  see 

also  West  Saxons. 
Gilbert,  Bishop,  iii.  347. 
Giles,  J.  A.,  i.  clxxv,  clxxvi. 
Gilling,  i.  80,  378. 
Gilsland,  i.  338  ;  iii.  ii. 
Girold,  Abbot,  ii.  273. 
Girvan,  iii.  36. 
Gislbereswyrth,  i.  clxxii. 
Giude,  Sea  of,  i.  130. 
Giudi,  i.  129. 

Giudin,  Sea  of,  i.  130 ;  see  Forth. 
Glass-makers    and   glass-making,    ii. 

269,  272  ;  iii.  365. 


Glass  window  in  York  Cathedral,  i. 

382,  383  ;  iii.  91,  92. 
Glastonbury  (Avalon,  Glastingaburg, 

Glastinga:a),    i.    cxliii,    cl-clv,  95 ; 

ii.   124,    321,    407,    432,    442-444, 

450,  501,  502  ;  iii.   197,  236,   352, 

384. 
Glencairn,  iii.  36. 
Glendale,  iii.  3. 
Glenholm,  iii.  36. 
Gloucester,  i.  clviii,  63,  64,  70,   328  ; 

ii.    385-388;    iii.    197,    218,    351, 

368. 
Gloucestershire,  i.  328;  ii.   185,  385, 

388,  401. 
Gloves  of  St.  Cuthberht,  iii.  87. 
Goatshead,  see  Gateshead. 
Gobban  (Goban,  Gobian),  St.,  i.  115; 

iii.  352. 
Godefroy,  Abbot,  ii.  500. 
Godparents,  i.  40  ;  iii.  252. 
Godwin,     Archbishop   of  Lyons,    ii. 

361. 

Godwyn  the  Dean,  iii.  228. 

Goldsmiths,  social  position,  ii.  268. 

Gomatrude,  i.  296. 

Good  works,  iii.  252. 

Gortyna  in  Crete,  ii.  78. 

Gospatric,  dapifer,  iii.  385. 

Gospels  in  Cuthberht's  coffin,  iii.  68, 

102-104. 
Gospels  presented  by  Athelstane,  iii. 

63. 

Gospels,    Lindisfarne,    iii.    61,    102, 

108-118. 

Gossiping  by  nuns,  iii.  178. 

Goxhill,  i.  356. 

Graetecros,  i.  332. 

Grandmont,  ii.  263. 

Grange,  iii.  36. 

Granta,  ii.  409. 

Grantchester,  ii.  409. 

Grasmere,  i.  *]!, 

Gratz,  i.  72. 

Gray,  Walter  de,  Archbishop  of  York, 
ii.  245. 

Greek  fire,  ii.  60. 

Greek  study,  and  influence,  i.  xiii, 
XV,  xxvi,  xxxi,  xxxii ;  ii.  160,  161, 
367  ;  iii.  314,  315.  359-361,  368. 

Greenwell,  Canon,  i.  iii. 

Greglade,  ii.  161. 

Gregorian  monks,  i.  xl. 

Gregorovius,  F.,  i.  clxxviii. 

Gregory,  Exarch,  i.  231. 

Gregory  i.  the  Great,  Saint  and  Pope, 
i.  xi,  XV,  xvi,  xviii,  xix,  xxxiv, 
xlvii,  Ix-lxii,  Ixxvi,  Ixxxvi,  cvi, 
cxix,  cxxii,  cxxix,  i,  31,  102,  103, 


INDEX 


419 


163,  175.  179,  211,  253,  254,  265, 

278,  287-289,  308,  355  ;  11.  9,  10, 
67.  93.  143,  165,  175,  201,  204, 
349,  371,  376;  iii.  I75>  34°,  359, 
360,  362. 
Gregory  ii.,  Saint  and  Pope,  i.  xvi, 
cxix,    clxxxii ;  ii.    319,    353,    355, 

356,  432,437,  439;  i":  150. 

Gregory  Nazianzen,  St.,  i.  254,  256- 

262,  269,  282. 
Gregory  of  Nyssen,  Saint  and  Bishop, 

i.  254,  275. 
Gregory  of  Tours,  Saint  and  Bishop, 

i.  xxi,  cxxii,  42;  ii.  61,  21 1,  265. 
Grimoaid,    Mayor   of   the  Palace,  i, 

302  ;  ii.  57. 
Grimuald,   Duke   of  Beneventum,  i. 

233- 
Grisar,  H.,  i.  clxxviii. 

Guash,  The,  iii.  210. 

Guda,  Abbot,  i.  clxviii,  clxxiii. 

Gudfrid,  Abbot   of  Lindisfarne,    iii. 

120,  123. 
Gueith  Linn  Garam,  ii.  107. 
Guerdmund   (Wermund),  i.  48 ;    iii. 

192. 
Guest-house  in  monasteries,  i.  cliv  ; 

iii.  384. 
Guinion,  i.  130. 
Guledig,  i.  8. 
Guthlac,  St.,    i.   Ix,    cxi,    clvi,   137; 

ii.  380,  381,  407-416;  iii.  46,  171, 

202,  212. 
Guthlacings  family,  ii.  408. 
Guthred,  iii.  62. 
Gwenedotia,  i.  ii. 
Gwynned,  ste  Wales,  North. 
Gyruy,  iii.  365. 

Gyrvii,  i.  333  ;  ii.  36  ;  iii.  366. 
Gyrvum,  sa  Jarrow. 
Gyrwas,  i.  330. 

Hackness  (Hacanos),  ii.  220,  418; 
iii.  195,  196,  201-204,  212. 

Haddan,  Abbot,  i.  clxxiv. 

Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and 
Ecclesiastical  Documents^  i.  cxxi. 

Haddenham,  iii.  218,  388. 

Haddi,  i.  clxxi. 

Hadrian  (Adrian),  Abbot,  i.  xxxi, 
Ixxxiv,  cxxxv-cxxxvii,  252,  287, 
304-306,  309;  ii.  I,  2,  23,  159, 
175,  179,  253,  365-372,  453-455, 
457,  467,  492  ;  iii.  360,  368. 

Hadstock,  iii.  216. 

Hadulac,  see  Heatholac. 

Hadwine,  see  /Edwine. 

Hsedda,  see  Hseddi,  Headda. 

Haeddi  (Eadda,  Haedde),  Bishop  of 


Winchester,  i.  cv,  cxiv,  cxviii, 
cxliii,  cli,  clii,  clxiii,  clxvii,  clxviii, 
clxx-clxxiii,  clxxxiv,  clxxxv,  44, 
366;  ii.  50,  381,  440-447,  451, 
461,  475,  491  ;  iii-  39,  369- 

Haefe,  river,  ii.  506. 

Haeg,  i.  cxxxvii. 

Haemgils,  ii.  403  ;  iii.  128. 

Haethfield,  battle,  see  Hemgils. 

Hagona  (Haguna),  Abbot,  i.  cxlviii, 
clxxii,  clxxiii. 

Haigh,  Father,  i.  clxxvii. 

Hailes,  iii.  36. 

Hairdressing,  iii.  309. 

Hair  growing  after  death,  iii.  66. 

Haldene,  ii.  516. 

Haldwulf,  see  Aldwulf. 

Halgut,  brook,  1.  12. 

Halgutstad,  i.   12. 

Hali  eland,  see  Lindisfarne. 

Hallgarth,  see  Halgut. 

Hallington,  i.  14. 

Halsall,  iii,  58. 

Halydene  (Heavenfield),  battle,  i. 
14. 

Hampshire,  i.  43,  328,  336;  ii.  113, 
136,  138,  447. 

Handbury  (Hanbury,  Heanbirig, 
Heanburg),  i.  clvi ;  ii.  389;  iii.  220, 
221. 

Hansley,  ii.  513. 

Hardecanute  (Eardecanut),  King,  ii. 

395- 
Hare,  flesh  of,  iii.  256. 
Hare,  Sir  Thomas,  iii.  98. 
Haripert     (Herebercht),       Lombard 

King,  ii.  351. 
Harold  Harefoot,  i.  65. 
Harold  ii..  King,  ii.  115. 
Harpham,  iii.  152,  171, 
Harp-playing,  iii.  262,  263. 
Harrington,  iii.  351. 
Plartlepool  (Heortesig,  Heruteu),    i. 

Ixxxvi,  92  ;   ii.    185  ;   iii.  186,  187, 

189-192,  197,  303,  317,  351,  389. 
Hatfield  Chase,  iii.  200,  349  ;  see  also 

Haethfield. 
Hathored,  Bishop,  1.  clxvi. 
Hathufrith,  priest,  ii.  232. 
Hathuwald,  shepherd,  iii.  199. 
Hatton,  i.  133. 
Hauster,  iii.  36. 
Hawkshead,  iii.  58. 
Haxheved,  iii.  58. 
Haydon  Bridge,  iii.  59,  60. 
Heaburg,  see  Bugga. 
Heacanas,  see  Hecanas. 
Headda  (Hoedde,  Hedda),  Abbot,  i. 

cxxx,  cxxxii ;  iii.  348. 


420 


INDEX 


Headda  (Hcedde,  Hedda,  Haeddi), 
Bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Leicester, 
i.  cxl,  clvi,  clx,  clxiii,  clxv,  clxix, 
clxxii,  clxxxvi  ;  ii.  l6i,  184,  381, 
389,  413,  440,  444. 

Healaugh,  iii.  186,  187. 

Hean,  i.  cxlv,  cxlvi ;  ii.  1 19-123, 
431  ;  iii.  348. 

Heanburg,  see  Handbury. 

Hearnbriht,  i.  clxxi. 

Heathfield,  Synod,  ii.  73-75,  127, 
169,  418  ;  see  also  Haethfield. 

Heatholac  (Hadulac),  Bishop  of  Elm- 
ham,  i.  clxxxiv;  ii.  419,  420. 

Heavenfield,  i.  12-15,  27,  47;  iii. 
303. 

Hebrew,    Aldhelm's  knowledge,  iii. 

369- 
Hebureahg,  i.  clxxm. 
Hecanas,  i.  329 ;  ii.  398,  399,  401  ; 

iii.  210,  358. 
Hedburga,  nun,  iii.  232. 
Hedda,  see  Hseddi,  Headda. 
Heddi,  see  ^Eddi. 
Hedilburga,  see  yEthelburga. 
Heiu,    St.,  and  Abbess,    i.  92,    98; 

iii.  186,  187,  189,  195,  1^6 ',  see  also 

Bega. 
Helen,  St.,  iii.  389. 
Helenstow,  ii.  120. 
Heliand,  poem,  iii.  274. 
Helias,  St.,  i.  Ixxiii. 
Helisend,  iii.  15. 

Hell,  i.  XXXV  ;  iii.  281,  282,  288-29I. 
Helmsley,  i.  70. 
Helmuald,  i.  xciii. 
Hemgils  (Cengisl,  Coengils,  Hemgisl, 

Hengisl,     Haemgils),     Abbot     of 

Glastonbury,   i.    cli-cliii,    civ;    ii. 

403,  443  ;  iii.  200,  235. 
Hen's  Well,  iii.  352. 
Hendon,  ii.  121. 
Hengisl,  see  Hemgils. 
Henley,  Commissioner,  iii.  92. 
Henry  i.,  iii.  196. 
Henry  IV,,  iii.  81,  166. 
Henry 'V.,  iii.  166. 
Henry  vi.,  iii.  89, 
Henry  vil.,  iii.  89. 
Henry  vili.,  ii.  39. 
Henwood,  ii.  120,  121. 
Heortesig,  see  Hartlepool. 
Heortford,  see  Herutford. 
Heptarchy,  ii.  373. 
Heraclius,  Emperor,  i.  xiv,  228,  231, 

233.  299;  ii-  341  ;  iii-  313- 
Herbert,  Bishop  of  Thetford,  iii.  223. 
Herbert,  St.,  see  Hereberht,  St. 
Herconwald,  see  Earconwald. 


Herculanus  of  Perugia,  i.  287. 
Herebald,   Abbot   of  Tynemouth,  i. 

84;  iii.  152,  158. 
Herebercht,  see  Haripert. 
Hereberht,  ii.  286. 
Hereberht  (Herbert),  St.,  iii.  40,  41. 
Hereford,  i.  328 ;  ii.   382,  398-401  ; 

iii.  358. 
Herefordshire,  ii.  293. 
Herefrid,  Abbot   of  Lindisfarne,   iii. 

42-46,  91. 
Hereric,  ii.  418  ;  iii.  187. 
Heresies,  i.  xr,  xix,  259. 
Heresuitha   (Hereswitha),  Queen,   i. 

121,    122,   125;  ii.  418;  iii.    187, 

188,  202,  356. 
Hereswythe,  nun,  i.  cxxxix. 
Heretics,  ii.  8;  iii.  241,  242. 
Herewald  (Herwald),  Bishop,  i.  cliii, 

clxi. 
Herford  in  Westphalia,  i.  64. 
Heriburga,  Abbess,  iii.  204. 
Hermelinda,  see  Eormelind. 
Hermits,  Irish,  iii.  352. 
Hernshaw(Herneshalg),iii.  153,  154. 
Herodham,  ii.  21. 
Herotunum,  ii.  449. 
Hersfeld,  iii.  192. 
Hertford,  see  Herutford. 
Heruteu,  see  Hartlepool. 
Herutford   (Heortford,   Hertford),  i. 

309;  ii.  2,  12,  20,   174,  176,   178; 

iii.  361. 
Hestild,  brook,  i.  12. 
Hethto,  ii.  393. 
Heversham,  i.  133. 
Hewald  the  Black,  ii.  403,  406. 
Hewald  the  White,  ii.  403,  406. 
Hexham,  i.  Ii,  12,  27,  70,  307,  367- 

378;    ii.    39,   54,    103,    158,    183, 

206,  227-230,  238,  240,  290,  293, 

296;  iii.  140,   144,   145,   154,  312, 

347. 
Hexham,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxvi, 
Hexham,  William  de,  iii.  87. 
Hexhamshire,  i.  367  ;  ii.  36. 
Hextildesham  (Hextoldesham),  i.  12. 
Heysham,  i.  384. 
Hickes,  G.,  Thesaurus,  i.  clxxvii. 
Hidaburn  (Hydaburn),  i.  clxxii. 
Hidburga,  ii.  477  ;  iii.  233. 
Hiddila,  ii.  135. 
Hierarchy,    English,   subordinate   to 

Canterbury,  ii.  12. 
Higebald,  see  Sigbald. 
Highley,  i.  cxlix. 
Hii,  see  lona. 

Hilary,  Bishop  of  Aries,  i.  170. 
Hild,  goddess  of  war,  iii.  190. 


INDEX 


421 


Hild,  see  also  Hilda. 

Hilda,  St.,  i.  xxxv,  cvi,  92,  98,  121, 

122,   125,    185-187  ;   ii.    185,  210, 

321,  384,  418,    440;  iii.   23,   151, 

152,  171,   186-195,   197,   198,  201, 

202,  232,  262,  263,  271,  364,  388. 

Hilddigyth,  iii.  191. 

Hildelitha,    Abbess    of    Barking,    ii. 

439,  477;  iii.  211,  229,  231-235. 
Hildiberht,  iii.  190. 
Hildithryth,  iii.  190,  191. 
Hildiwald,  iii.  190. 
Hildkirk,  iii.  388. 
Hinierius,  i.  254. 
Hincmar,  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  i. 

xcvi,  213  ;  iii.  264. 
Hincmar  of  Laon,  i.  213. 
Hindamus,  see  Niridamus. 
Hinderwell  (Hilderwell),  iii.  388. 
Himiinhilda,  see  Erminilda. 
Hispalis,  ii.  4. 
Histon,  iii.  390. 

Hlothaire,  Bishop,  see  Chlothaire. 
Hlothaire     (Chlothaire,      Llothaire), 
King   of  Kent,    i.    cxxxv,    cxxxvi, 
clxvii,  clxxxiii ;  ii.  32,  48,  74,  125- 
129,  13."-  360,  398;  iii.  219. 
Hludwlg,  ii.  222. 
Hodge'^,  Mr.,  i.  clxxvii. 
Hodik"  V',(Ldflix:J};  i.  clxviii. 
Hoe,  i ,  cxxYi-s. 
Holbcrn,  iii.  3,  390. 
Hole,  Mr.,  i.  clxxvi. 
Holkham,  iii.  222. 
Holland,  i.  74. 
Hollenthal,  i.  71. 
Hollum,  i.  74. 
Holophernes,  iii.  375* 
Holy  Island,  see  Lindisfarne. 
Holy    Spirit,    double    procession,    i. 

xxxiv. 
Homelea,  river,  ii.  134. 
Homer,  i.  256  ;  iii.  364. 
Homicide,  iii.  240,  261. 
Homme,  ii.  393,  394. 
Honey,  ii.  335  ;  iii.  256. 
Honoratus  (Honorat),  St.,  i.  169,  170, 

182. 
Honorius,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
i.  clxxxiv,  31,    27,    39,    160,    163, 
309  ;  ii.  77. 
Honorius  i.,  Emperor,  ii.  143. 
Honorius  i..  Pope,  i.   35,  37,  38;  ii. 

345-. 
Honorius  ii..  Pope,  i.  45. 
Honouring  father  and  mother,  iii.  261. 
Hoo,  i.  clxxiii. 
Hoo  St.  Werburgh,  iii.  221. 
Hooc  (Hooi),  Abbot,  i.  clxviii,  clxxiii. 


Hooker,  Judicious,  i.  263. 

Hope,  Sir  W.  H.  St.  John,  i.  clxxvii. 

Horley,  iii.  390. 

Horn,  Dean,  i.  cix. 

Horoscopes,  ii.  445. 

Horseflesh,  iii.  256. 

Horse-racing,  iii.  159. 

Hospitality  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  26. 

Hours,  i.  27,  275-278,  281. 

Howard,  Lord  William,  i.  338. 

Howburn,  iii.  20. 

Howorth,  Rupert,  i.  clxxix. 

Hoxne,  i.  310. 

Hreopadun  (Hrepadun),  see  Repton. 

Hreutford,  ii.  136. 

Hrofi,  see  Rochester. 

Hrothuar  (Hrouuar,  Hrounari),  Ab- 
bess, i.  clxi,  clxii. 

Hruddingpool,  ii.  392. 

Hruringham,  iii.  3. 

Hrypis,  iii.  364. 

HuDetberht  (Eusebius,  Huretbercht, 
Hw3etberht),  Abbot,  i.  Ixxxvi,  xc, 
xciv  ;  ii.  319;  iii.  148-151,  221. 

Huaeiburga  (Ecgburga,  Egburga),  i. 
cxiv  ;  iii.  202-204  ;  see  also  With- 
burga. 

Hugabeorg,  i.  cl ;  ii.  448. 

Hugh,  Abbot  of  Selby,  iii.  76. 

Hugh,  Prankish  King,  ii.  497. 

Hugon,  Abbot,  i.  clxvii. 

Hull,  i.  22. 

Hull,  river,  iii.  155' 

Humber,  ii.  320,  411  ;  iii.  213. 

Humble,  river,  ii.  134. 

Humeratun,  i.  cxxxvii. 

Humfred,  Bishop,  i.  cxlvii ;  ii.  46. 

Humility  of  bishops  and  kings,  i.  33, 

82. 
Humshaugh,  i.  13. 
Huna,  St.,  iii.  213,  214,  387. 
Huneya,  iii.  215,  387. 
Hunred,  monk,  iii.  58,  61. 
Huns,  ii.  62. 
Huntendune  port,  i.  332. 
Hunting,  penalty  for,  ii.  167. 
Huntingdonshire,  i.  cxxxiii ;  ii.  409. 
Hunwald,  i.  80. 
Hwgetberht,  see  Huaetberht. 
Hwaetred,  i.  347. 
Hwiccas,  i.  clviii,  clix,  328,  329  ;  ii. 

185,  3827387,  509,  510;  iii.  225. 
Hwiccia,  iii.  361. 
Hwittingaham,  ii.  513. 
Hy,  see  lona. 
Hydaburn,  see  Hidaburn. 
Hygbald,  Abbot,  i.  363. 
Hygeberht,  Bishop,  i.  clxvi. 
Hyglac,  iii.  346. 


422 


INDEX 


Hymn,  first  English,  iii.  267,  268. 
Hymn  in  praise  of  Fursey,  i.  119. 
Hyssington,  iii.  390. 

Iberia,  ii.  326. 

Icanho  (Ikanhoe),  i.  136-138 ;  ii. 
256. 

Iceland,  iii.  314. 

"Ichtbricht  Epscop,"  see  Ecgberht, 
St. 

Iclings  caln,  ii.  408. 

Ida,  King,  i.  23  ;  ii.  511  ;  iii.  235. 

Idaberga,  St.,  i.  71. 

Idle,  river,  i.  xxvii. 

Idols  to  be  destroyed,  i.  244. 

Ilkley,  iii.  316. 

Illuminator  of  books,  iii.  133, 

Imma,  ii.  127,  129. 

Immin,  i.  218. 

Importunus,  Bishop  of  Paris,  i,  325. 

Ina,  King,  see  Ini. 

Incantations,  iii.  247. 

Incense,  iii.  250. 

Incest,  ii.  30. 

Inchiquin,  i.  102  ;  iii.  352. 

Inchkeith,  i.  129. 

Indulgence,  iii.  41. 

Infallibility  of  Pope,  ii.  347. 

Infangtheof,  ii.  239. 

Infeppingwm,  i.  135. 

Infirm  in  monasteries,  iii.  254,  384. 

Ingeld,  Abbot,  iii.  235,  236. 

Ingetlingurn,  i.  80,  155,  219,  378; 
ii.  103,  256. 

Inguald  (Incguald,  Incwald,  Ingulf), 
Bishop  of  London,  i.  clxi,  clxxv, 
clxxxv. 

Ingulph,  priest,  i.  clxxv. 

Ingwald,  iii.  12. 

Inhrypun,  see  Ripon. 

Ini  (Ina),  King  of  Wessex,  i.  Iviii, 
cxlii-cxlvi,  cxlviii,  cl,  clii-clv, 
clxvii,  clxxxiii,  clxxxiv ;  ii.  132, 
220,  356,  357,  364,  380,  427-439, 
448,  450,  462,  471,  477,  494,  501  ; 
iii.  235,  236,  348. 

Inisboufinde,  i.  Ixxxvi. 

Inisfail,  ii.  151. 

Innocent,  Pope,  i.  173  ;  iii.  241,  252. 

Inscriptions,  Latin,  iii.  317,  318. 

Introduction,  i.  Ixxxiii-clxxx. 
Inveresk,  i.  129,  130. 

Invertig,  iii,  36. 
lodeo,  Sea  of,  i.  130. 
lona  (Hii,  Hy),  i.  xxvii,  10,  16,  17, 
19,  20,  22-24,  31,  32,  97,  98,  135, 
141,  159,  196,  203;  ii.  107,  149, 
154,  156,  181,  257,  308,  310,  316, 
502;  iii.  137,  138. 


lona,  end  of  primacy,  iii.  139. 
lorminburga,  see  Eormenburga. 
lova,  real  name  of  lona,  i.  16. 
Iplesfleot  (Ebbsfleet),  iii.  226. 
Ipsden,  i.  36. 
Ipswich,  iii.  227,  391. 
Irekirk  (Hildkirk),  iii.  388. 
Ireland,  i.  xxxvii,    5,    25,    104,   112, 

113,   115,   116,    302,  321,  324;  ii. 

57,  90,   104,    149,    405,  407,  458, 

474;  iii.  60,  315-317,  354,  372.  _ 
Ireland,  poem  on,  by  King  Aldfrid, 

ii.  151,  152. 
Ireland,  schools,  ii.  401-407,  466,  467. 
Iris,  river,  i.  256. 
Irish  architecture  in  England,  i.  200, 

201. 
Irish  Church,  see  Church,  Irish. 
Irish  churches  desolated  by  Ecgfrid, 

ii.  105. 
Irish  hermits,  iii.  352. 
Irish  missionaries,  i.  2,  3. 
Irminburga,  see  Eormenburga. 
Irton,  i.  133. 
Isca,  river,  i.  129. 
Isidore,    St.,    Bishop    of   Seville,    i. 

Ixxxv,  175  ;  ii.  5,  6,   13  ;  iii.  234, 

340. 
Italy,  i.  xviii,  xix,  232,  233,  235,  287, 

305;  ii.  3,  452  ;  iii.  312-315,  317, 

328,  330,  332,  360,  361. 
Itchen,  river,  ii.  136. 
Ithamar,    Bishop    of    Rochester,    i. 

cxxxiii,  clxxxiv,  331. 
lurmenburga,  see  Eormenburga. 
lurminburg,  see  Eormenburga. 
Ivor,  son  of  Alan  of  Armorica,  ii.  427. 
Ixminge  (Ermynge),  iii.  213,. 

Jacobites,  ii.  82. 

James,  Deacon,  i.   3,  158,  187  ;  iii. 

Januarius,  St.,  i.  Ixxiii. 

Jarrow  (Gyrvum),  i.  xxxii,  xxxiv, 
Ixxxiii,  Ixxxiv,  Ixxxvii,  xciii,  cix, 
86,  87,  137  ;  ii.  103,  153,  196,  273, 
276-280,  287-293,  298,  312  ;  iii.  6, 
94,  121,  138,  148-151,  197,  266, 
304,  317,  321,  327,  332,  333,  341, 

365-367,  373- 
Jaruman,  Bishop  of  Mercia,  i.  clxxxv, 

212,  213,  223,  224,  307,  331,  332, 

349  ;  ii.  422. 
Jedburgh,  i.  130. 
Jerome,  i.  Ixxx,  261,  264,  276,   325  ; 

iii.  234  :  Galilean  Psalter,  i.  162. 
Jerusalem,  ii.  80,  330,  334;  iii.  315. 
]ev!  merchants,  i.  230. 
Jewellery,  Merovingian,  ii.  264-272. 


INDEX 


423 


Jews  and  Christian  slaves,  ii.  8. 
Jews,  persecution,  i.  16,  299. 
Jews,  times  of  prayer,  i.  276. 
Jobianus,  ii.  64. 

Jocelyn,  monk,  iii.  228,  346,  347. 
Johanna,  widow  of  Black  Prince,  i. 

90. 
John  I.,  Pope,  ii.  213. 
John  IV.,  Pope,  i.  cxxiv  ;  iii.  208. 
John  v.,  Pope,  i.  clxxxi  ;  ii.  348. 
John  VI.,   Pope,  i.  cxxix,  clxxxi ;  ii. 

204,  209,  210,  351  ;  iii.  152. 
John  VII.,  Pope,  i.  clxxxi  ;  ii.  351- 

353. 
John  XVI.,  Pope,  iii.  339, 
John,  Archbishop  of  Aries,  i.  305. 
John,  Bishop  of  Portus  Romanus,  ii. 

78,  84. 
John,  Bishop  of  Reggio,  ii.  79. 
John,     Bishop    of    Thessalonica,    ii. 

79- 
John,  chanter,  i.  Ixxxiv  ;  ii.  69,   70, 

73,  274,  275. 

John  Chrysostom,  St.,  i.  173. 

John,  Deacon,  ii.  78. 

John,  Notary,  ii.  85. 

John  of  Beverley,  St.,  Bishop  of  Hex- 
ham and  York,  i.  Ixxxiii,  cvi,  cxii, 
clxxxvi ;  ii.  161,  21 1,  223,  227, 
505,  506;  iii.  152-171,  193,  200, 
204,  347,  364. 

John  of  Biclaro,  i.  clxxviii ;  ii.  61. 

John,  Patriarch,  ii.  342. 

John,  Priest,  i.  xcii. 

Jouarre  (Jouarra),  i.  297  ;  iii.  1S3. 

Jovianus,  ii.  64. 

Judan-byrig,  i.  130. 

Judenburg,  i.  72. 

Judeu,  i.  128-130;  iii.  356. 

Judicail,  i.  297. 

Judith,  wife  of  Tostig,  i.  86. 

Julian,  ii.  264. 

Julian  the  Apostate,  i.  254,  255,  286. 

Julian,  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  ii.  16, 
346. 

Jurmanus,  see  Germinus. 

Justina,  nun,  ii.  477  ;  iii.  232. 

Justinian  II.,  Emperor,  i.  xiii,  clxxxi, 
clxxxii;  ii.  325-341,  349,  351,  354  ; 

111-  367. 
Justiniapolis,  ii.  327. 
Justus,  Bishop,  ii.  11. 
Jutes,  i.  37  ;  ii.  134. 

Kaelcacaestir,  iii.  186. 
Kairowan,  ii.  339. 
Kalas,  iii.  226. 
Kanegnub,  iii.  192. 
Kanegut,  iii.  192. 


Katharine,  Queen,  ii.  39. 

Keats,  John,  iii.  273. 

Kellett,  iii.  59. 

Kemble  (Cemele),  i.  cxliii. 

Kenedritha  (Coenthrytha),  Queen,  i. 
clxxii. 

Kenfrith,  see  Cenfrith. 

Kennemaren,  i.  74. 

Kenred,  see  Coenred. 

Kensped,  iii.  3. 

Kenswith,  iii.  3. 

Kent,  i.  xxviii,  civ,  ex,  cxxxvii-cxxxix, 
37,  38,  76,  150,228,  239-254,  306, 
308,  315,  320,  327  ;  ii.  32,  43,  44, 
47,  48,  51,  112,  125-130,  137,  138, 
170,  216,  356-373,  424,  428,  429, 
455,  457;  iii.  185,  225,  227,  357, 
,363- 

Kent,  Kings  of,  i.  clxxxii-clxxxiv. 

Kent,  East,  Archbishops  of,  i.  clxxxiv, 
clxxxv. 

Kent,  West,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxiv, 
clxxxv. 

Kenten,  Kentwine,  see  Centwin. 

Kenulf  (Kenulph),  Abbot,  i.  clxxiv  ; 
ii.  416. 

Kenwalch,  see  Coinwalch. 

Kenwald,  see  Coinwalch. 

Ketel,  William,  i.  cxii. 

Kettering,  i.  154. 

Key,  miracle,  ii.  392,  393. 

Khazars,  ii.  62,  340. 

Kilbagie,  iii.  196. 

Kilbees,  iii.  196. 

Kilbirnie,  i.  36. 

Kilbucho,  iii.  196. 

Kildale,  iii.  59. 

Kilian,  St.,  ii.  348. 

Kill-arsagh,  iii.  352. 

Killfursa,  i.  102  ;  iii.  352,  353. 

Kinbert,  see  Cyneberht. 

Kineburga,  Saint  and  Queen,  see  Cyne- 
burga. 

Kineburga,  St.,  of  Gloucester,  ii.  386, 

387.  ".. 

Kings  and  the  religious  life,  i.  Iviii. 
Kingsley,  Staffs,  iii.  221. 
Kinship,  spiritual,  i.  40  ;  iii.  349. 
Kirby  Moorside,  i.  154,  202. 
Kirkby  Ireleth,  iii.  58. 
Kirkby  Stephen,  i.  133. 
Kirkcudbright,  iii.  36. 
Kirkdale,    near  Lastingham,    i.   134, 

154,  202  ;  iii.  308. 
Kirkedale  (St.  Bees),  iii.  196. 
Kirklade,  ii.  161. 
Kirkoswald,  i.  70. 
Kirton,  i.  136. 
Kiss  at  mass,  iii.  260. 


424 


INDEX 


Kitchen  in  monasteries,  i.  25. 
Kneeling    at    prayers  forbidden,    ii. 

338. 
Krusch,  Bruno,  i.  clxxviii. 
Kuniburga,  iii.  192. 
Kyneburga,  see  Cyneburga. 
Kynegitha,  i.  cxxxvii. 
Kynehardus,  see  Cynehard. 

Lactantius,  iii.  37. 

Laestingaeu    monastery,    i.    cv,    134, 

153,154,  206,  207,  212,  349,  350, 

357.  359,  367*  ^^^  also  Lastingham. 
Lagny,  i.  116,  118;  iii.  354,  355. 
Lancashire,  i.  50,  132  ;  iii.  303. 
Lancaster,  i.  133. 
Landmylien,  iii.  211. 
Landscape,  Basil's  appreciation  of,  i. 

256. 
Lanercost,  i.  338. 
Lanfranc,  Archbishop,  i.  cxii,  cxxvi, 

87  ;  ii.  244,  498  ;  iii.  229. 
Langres,  ii.  321  ;  iii.   322. 
Langton  in  Merse,  iii.  36, 
Langton,    Stephen,     Archbishop    of 

Canterbury,  i.  45. 
Lantocal,  i.  cli ;  ii.  443. 
Laodicasa,  i.  19. 
Laon,  iii.  352. 
Lastingham,  i,  Ixxxiv,  134,  154;  iii. 

218,  357  ;  see  also  Lasstingoeu. 
Latchford,  i.  53. 
Lateran  Council,  ii,  'jd. 
Latin,  knowledge  and  study,  i.  xxxiii, 

183;  ii.  479,  480;  iii.   234,  235, 

367,  369,  370. 

Latineacum,  see  Lagny. 

Laud,  William,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, ii,  251. 

Lauherne,  iii.  318. 

Lavisse,  M.,  i,  clxxviii. 

Law,  Roman,  iii,  369. 

Lawrence,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
i.  clxxi,  242, 

Lawrence,  F.,  i.  clxxix. 

Lawrence,  St.,  i.  67. 

Laybach,  i,  72. 

Lazica,  ii.  339. 

Leader,  river,  iii,  4,  5. 

Leander,  iii,   176. 

"  Leavings,"  ii,  no. 

Lebanon,  ii.  326. 

Lebeau's  Byzantine  History^  i. 
clxxvii. 

Leclerc,  VEspagne  Chr^tienne,  i. 
clxxviii. 

Le  Crotoy,  iii.  354. 

Lee,  iii.  227. 

Lee,  Commissioner,  iii,  92. 


Lee  St.  John,  iii.  171. 

Leeds,  i.  128  ;  iii.  351. 

Leger,  St.,  iii.  363.    _ 

Leicester,  i.  clxxv ;  ii.  231,  381. 

Leinster,  ii.  152. 

Lekingfield,  iii.  157. 

Leland,  John,  i.  clxxvii. 

Lent,  i.  29  ;  ii.  405. 

Leo  II.,  St.,  Pope,  i.  clxxxi ;  ii.  13, 

72,  344-346. 
Leo  III.,  Pope,  ii.  438. 
Leo  IV.,  Pope,  ii.  438. 
Leo  IX.,  Pope,  i.  cxxii. 
Leo   III.,  the  Isaurian,  Emperor,  i. 

clxxxii ;  ii.  343,  356,  439. 
Leobgytha  (Leoba,  Leobgyth,  Tryth- 

gifu),    St.,    i.    cxiv ;  iii.    1S5,  190, 

230,  237_._ 
Leodulco,  ii.  268. 
Leodwald,  ii,  511. 
Leofric,  Bishop,  i.  cii. 
Leofric,  Earl,  iii.  221. 
Leofwin,  iii.  68. 
Leominster,  iii.  225. 
Leontius,  Bishop,  ii.  81. 
Leontius,   Bishop   of  Frejus,  i.   169, 

170. 
Leontius  I.,  Emperor,  i.  clxxxi;  ii. 

339,  340. 
Lerins  (Lerinum),  i.  xxxii,  1 68-1 70, 

174,  182,  251  ;  iii.  176. 
Lero,  i.  169. 

Lethaby,  Professor,  i.  clxxvii. 
Lethom  (Cleveland),  iii.  59. 
Lethom,  see  Lytham. 
Leutherius,  see  Chlothaire. 
Levicus,  Count  of  Leicestre,  i.  clxxv. 
Libanius,  i.  254,  255,  263. 
Libellus  Scotoruni,  i.  cxvii. 
Liber  Pontijicalis,  i,  clxxviii. 
Libraries,  i.  xxxiii,  Ixxxiv,  cxxxi ;  ii. 

253,  254  ;  iii,  337,  360. 
Lichfield  (Licitfelda),  i,  323,  353,  356, 

.357,  364,  365  ;  ii-  380,  381  ;  iii-  219. 
Licinian,  i.  187. 
Licitfelda,  see  Lichfield. 
Liege,  iii.  103. 
Liguria,  i.  35. 
Limoges,  ii.  262-269. 
Lina,  river,  ii.  513. 
Lincoln,  i.  clxxv,  44  ;  ii.  41 1. 
Lincolnshire,  i,   35,  62,  320  ;  ii.  35, 

41,  42,  49,  50,  401,  411,  502  ;  iii. 

213. 
Lindis,  river,  i.  20. 
Lindisfaras,  i.  349. 
Lindisfarne,    i.    xxvii,    Ixvi,    Ixxxiv, 

Ixxxvii,   xcii,  c,  cvii,  cxvi,   20-31, 

58,  60,  76,  94,  98,  99,  156,  161, 


INDEX 


425 


196,  198,  203,  207,  220,  221,  249, 

382  ;  ii.  54,  103,  105,  160,  181, 
228,  290,  505,  512,  513;  iii.  3,  8, 
13,  14,  18,  20,  23,  30,  31,  42-45, 
47,  51,  57,  59,  94,  120,  121,  131, 
137,  139,  190,  192,  198,  276,  316, 
340,  347,  351,  384- 

Lindisfarne,    Bishops    of,    i.    clxxxv, 
clxxxvi. 

Lindisfarne  Gospels,  iii.  61,  102,  108- 
118,  122,  317,  329,  385. 

Lindissi,  i.  35,  63  ;  ii.  50,  86,  401, 
402,  405  ;  see  also  Lindsey. 

Lindsey,  i.  cv ;  iii.  163,  167  ;  see  also 
Lindissi. 

Lindsey,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxvi. 

Linen  stolen,  i.  89,  90. 

Lingones,  iii.  322. 

Linlithgow,  ii.  506 ;  iii.  36. 

Liodguald,  ii.  511. 

"  Lion  of  the  English,"  i.  60. 

Lisbon,  i.  64. 

Lismore,  i.  321. 

Litany,  Greater,  i.  10 1. 

Littleborne,  i.  cxxxvii. 

Littleton,  ii.  496. 

Liudhard,  ii.  170, 

Liudprand,  King  of  the  Lombards,  ii. 
321. 

Liverpool,  iii.  351. 

Llairvello,  iii.  390. 

Llanerch  Panna,  i.  52. 

Llothaire,  see  Hlothaire. 

Loidis  (Leeds),  iii.  351. 

Loidis  (Lothian),  i.  128. 

Lokington,  iii.  165. 

Lombards,  i.  xviii,  xix,  232,  297, 
305;  ii.  3  ;  iii.  313. 

London,  i.  cxxvii,  cxlvii,  40,  150, 
151,  307,  308,  324;  ii-  45,  50,  216, 
343,  391,  420 ;  iii.  226,  356. 

London,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxiv,  clxxxv. 

Longinianus,  ii.  141. 

Lord's  Day,  see  Sunday. 

Lord's  Supper,  i.  281. 

Lorraine,  i.  169. 

Lorsch,  ii.  261. 

Lorton,  iii.  59. 

Lothaire,  Duke,  i.  301. 

Lothaire,  Lotharius,  see  also  Chlo- 
thaire,  Hlothaire. 

Lothians,  i.  8  ;  ii.  516. 

Lough  Corrib,  i.  102  ;  iii.  354. 

Lough  Mask,  iii.  352. 

Loughderg,  i.  321. 

Louis,  St.,  ii.  273,  274. 

Lourdes,  ii.  435. 

Love-feasts  forbidden,  ii.  337. 

Lucian,  Apostle  of  Beauvais,  ii.  264. 


Lucker,  iii.  388. 

Luel,  see  Carlisle. 

Lugair,  St.,  i.  19. 

Lugubalia,  see  Carlisle. 

Lulling,  prccfcct,  i.  clxvi. 

LuUus,    Archbishop     of    Mainz,     i. 

Ixxxvii,    xci,    xcvii,    xcviii,    cxiii ; 

ii.  447  ;  iii.  365,  388. 
Lupus,  Abbot  of  P^errara,  i.  xcviii. 
Lusitania,  ii.  4. 
Lute  playing,  iii.  371. 
Luxury  in  monasteries,  iii.  184,  185. 
Luxury  of  clergy,  i.  xlix. 
Lyccidfelth,  i.  356. 
Lydesige,  i.  cxlviii. 
Lying,    monastic,     i.    95  ;    see    also 

Forgeries. 
Lyminge,  i.  cxxxix,  clxix,   142,    149, 

374  ;  ii.  358  ;  iii.  185,  229. 
Lyons,  i.  clxxii,   163,  165-167  ;  ii.  8, 

361. 
Lytham  (Lethom),  iii.  58,  94. 

Maban,  Abbot  of  Gloucester,  iii.  368. 
Macarius,    Patriarch   of  Antioch,    ii. 

68,  79,  81. 
Maceriae  (Mazeroeles),  in  Ponthieu, 

i.  116. 
MacRimedo,  Finan,  see  Finan,  St. 
Macrina,  i.  255  ;  iii.  183. 
Madelgisilus,  iii.  352. 
Madoc,  St.,  iii.  187. 
Madrid,  i.  Ixxiii. 

Maedhog,  Bishop  of  Ferns,  iii.  187. 
Maelduib,  Maelduin,  see  Maildulf. 
Maelgwyn,  i.  16. 
Mageo,  see  Mayo. 
Magesaetes,  i.  328  ;  iii.  358. 
Magesetania,  iii.  361. 
Magheo,  see  Mayo. 
Magic,  i.  Ixviii,  Ixxiii,  Ixxiv,  215  ;  ii. 

99,  172,  173. 
Magna  Groecia,  iii.  337. 
Magnin,    VEglise    IVisigothiqiie^    i. 

clxxviii. 
Magyars,  ii.  62,  63. 
Maiden  Way,  i.  133. 
Maildulf  (Meldum,  Meldun,  Maelduib, 

Maelduin),    Abbot,     ii.     453-455, 

457,  461. 
Mailros,  see  Melrose. 
Main,  i.  298. 
Mainz,  i.  71. 
Makerfield,  i.  53. 
Malata,  see  Sheppey. 
Malcolm  of  Scotland,  ii.  240. 
Maldubesburg,    Maldubia,    see   Mal- 

mesbury. 
Malmcdy,  i.  297. 


426 


INDEX 


Malmesbury,  i.  cxi,  cxxvlii,  cxli- 
cxliii;  ii.  119,  125,  394,  442,  444, 
45i»  453.  454,  457,  460-462,  465, 
471,  472,  491,  493-500;  iii.  348, 
356,  370,  373- 

Malmesbury  Abbey  Annals,  i.  cxv. 

Manau,  i,  128,  129. 

Man-bot,  i.  248. 

Manitius,  Gesch.  der  Lat.  Lit.  des 
Mitielalters,  i.  clxxv. 

Mannius,  Abbot,  ii.  396. 

Mansuetus,  Archbishop  of  Milan,  ii. 

Manuscript,  iii.  328-330. 

Mardaites,  ii.  326,  327. 

Margaret,  daughter   of  Henry  viir., 

iii.  89. 
Margaret,  St.,  ii.  240;  iii.  88. 
Marinus,  Pope,  ii.  439. 
Maronites,  ii.  82. 
Marriage,  ii.  29,  30,   177,  244,  245, 

247,  248 ;  iii.  254,  257-260. 
Marriage  of  baptized  and  unbaptized, 

ii.  357  ;  iii.  252. 
Marriage  of  clergy,    i.    26 ;  ii.    331- 

333  ;  iii.  244. 
Marriage  of  sponsors,  ii.  334. 
Marriage,  spiritual,  iii.  183. 
Marriage   within   prohibited  degrees, 

i.  151. 
Marseilles,  i.  170,  173,  305. 
Marske,  iii.  59,  61. 
Martial,  St.,  ii.  263. 
Martin,  St.,  ii.  265;  iii.  29,  340. 
Martin  I.,   Pope,  i.    xvi,  xxxii,   231, 

237;  ii.  70,  75,  76,  274.  _ 
Martyrs  and  canonisation,  iii.  340. 
Martyrs,  histories,  iii.  141. 
Martyrs,  spurious  lives,  ii.  336. 
Mary,  Queen,  i.  351. 
Maserfield  (Maserfelth),  i.  50-54,  58, 

74,  76  ;  iii.  349. 
Masham,  Sir  William  de,  iii.  81. 
Mass,  i.  Ixv,  Ixvi ;  iii.  249,  251-253, 

260. 
Mass  celebrated  in  a  vision,  i.  Ixviii. 
Mauchline,  iii.  36. 
Maud,    wife    of    King     David,    iii. 

Maurice,  ii.  65. 

Maurice,  Emperor,  i.  Ivii. 

Maurice,  St.,  ii.  273. 

Maurus,   Archbishop  of  Ravenna,  i. 

238,  239. 
Maurus,  moneyer,  ii.  268. 
Maurus,  monk,  iii.  228. 
Maximinian,  ii.  264. 
Maxton,  iii.  36. 
Maybole,  iii.  36. 


Mayo  (Mageo,  Magheo),  i.  Ixxxvi, 
196-198. 

Mayoc,  iii.  354. 

Mayor  of  the  Palace,  functions,  i. 
301. 

Mazeroeles,  see  Maceriae. 

Mazeroles,  i.  157. 

Meath,  ii.  104,  no,  152. 

Meats  offered  to  priests,  ii.  338. 

Meaux,  i.  306  ;  ii.  214,  230. 

Medcaut,  i.  20  ;  iii.  351. 

Medeshamstede,  see  Peterborough. 

Mediaevalism,  ii.  149. 

Medicine,  i.  284;  ii.  178,  179. 

Mediterranei  Angli,  i.  loo. 

Meican,  see  Haethfield. 

Meldanus  (Meldan),  Bishop,  i.  102, 
109,  116. 

Meldulfesbirg,  see  Malmesbury. 

Meldum,  Meldun,  see  Maildulf. 

Meldunesburg,  see  Malmesbury. 

Melescroft,  iii.  164. 

Meletius,  Bishop,  i.  351. 

Melfont,  ii.  404. 

Mellitus,  Bishop  of  London,  i.  138  ; 
ii.  II,  34. 

Mellor  (Meier),  iii.  58. 

Melrose,  i.  cvii,  184,  221,  222  ;  ii. 
54,  279,  405  ;  iii.  3-8,  12,  18,  36, 
46,  122,  124,  129-131. 

Menevia,  i.  20. 

Menial  duties  of  nuns,  iii.  177. 

Menmuir,  iii.  351. 

Meonsborow,  i.  336. 

Meonwari,  i.  336. 

Merchdorf,  monk,  iii.  1 35. 

Mercia,  i.  xxviii,  xxx,  cv,  30,  40,  43, 
47,48,  74,  75,  100,  121-132,  134, 
216-219,  223,  224,  248,  249,  306, 
319,  320,  326-336,  349-365;  "• 
34,  35,  41,  42,  47-50,  loi,  171, 
184,  198-200,  216,  217,  227,  233, 
373-416 ;  iii.  367. 

Mercia,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxv,  clxxxvi ; 

"^•.356. 
Mercia,  Kings  of,  i.  clxxxii-clxxxiv. 
Merewald  (Merwald),  King,  i.  331, 

335  ;  iii.  210,  225,  362. 
Merewin,  iii.  225. 
Merida,  ii.  4. 
Merin  lodeo,  i.  130. 
Merlinch,  i.  cliv. 
Merton,  iii.  59. 
Merwald,  see  Merewald. 
Mesopotamia,  i.  255. 
Metgoit,  i.  20. 
Methley,  i.  70,  316. 
Metropolitans,  i.  cxxxix  ;  ii.  6,  7,  lo, 

11,24. 


INDEX 


427 


Metropolitans,  French,  ii.  8,  9. 
Metropolitans,  Spanish,  ii.  4. 
Metropolitans  with  papal   authority, 

ii.  10,  II,  362. 
Metropolitans,   see  also  Canterbury, 

York. 
Metz,  ii.  261,  362. 
Mexico,  i.  Ixxiii. 
Michael,  St.,  ii.  214,  230. 
Michelstadt,  ii.  191,  262. 
Micklethwaite,  Mr.,  i.  clxxvii. 
Middelangli,  i.  100. 
Middlesbrough,  iii.  388, 
Middleton,  near  Manchester,  iii.  54> 

59. 
Middleton,  Yorks,  iii.  155. 
Middlezoy  (Soweie,    Sowy),  i.    cliv, 

civ. 
Migne,  Patrologia,  i.  clxxv. 
Milan,  i.  238,  377  ;  ii.  76. 
Milbourne,  iii.  55. 
Milburga    (Milburgh),   St.,  ii.    379; 

iii.  210,  211,  225,  389. 
Mildred,  St.,  Abbess  of  Minster,   i. 

cxiii,  cxxxvii,  cxxxix,  249  ;  iii.  225- 

229,  346,  390,  391. 
Milgith,  iii.  225. 
Miller,  Dr.,  i.  clxxv. 
Milred,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  i.  clxii. 
Milton,  John,  i.  xxxv  ;  iii.  272. 
Minster  in  Thanet,  iii.  225-230,  233, 

390,  391.  ... 

Minuscules,  iii.  307. 

Miracle  play  at  Beverley,  iii.  169. 

Miracles,  i.  Ixxviii,  Ixxxiv,  Ixxxv,  cvii, 
cix,  27,  34,  37,  38,  45,  46,  55-57, 
61,  63,  68-70,  73,  76-78,  87-90, 
113,  126,  172,  207,  247,  248,^364; 
ii.  98-100,  116,  117,  121,  127,  128, 
179,  195.  203,  214,  222,  234,  238- 
242,  247,  369,  370,  392,  394-398, 
402,  406,  420,  421,  423,  434,  445, 
468,  469,  471,  492,  493,  495,  496, 
498-500,506,516,517;  iii.  11-13, 
16-18,  21-23,  28,  34-37,  39,  44, 
48,  49,  56-58,  62,  65-67,  72,  79, 
88,  89,  107,  108,  119-121,  133, 
147,  153-158,  161,  163,  166-171, 
186,  196-198,  204-206,  208,  210, 
213,  216,  217,  221-232,  350,  352, 

.355,  370,  385-387,  392. 
Mirafield,  i.  cxxxvi. 
Missionary  labours  of  English  priests, 

i.  xxxviii,  xxxix. 
Missionary  methods,    i.    16,   17 ;   ii. 

450. 
Modestus,  i.  262. 
Moesia,  ii.  62,  327. 
Mohammedans,  iii.  313,  315. 


Moinan,  iii.  354. 

Mol,  see  Mul. 

Molescroft,  iii.  164. 

Molesworth,  J.  E.  N.,  i.  257  ;  ii.  251. 

Monachism,  Rule  of  St.  Basil,  i.  267- 
286. 

Monasteries,  i.  xxii-xxiv. 

Monasteries  and  episcopal  jurisdic- 
tion, ii.  27. 

Monasteries,  double,  iii.  182-185, 
214,  254. 

Monasteries,  first,  in  Western  Europe, 

i.  173. 
Monasteries,  Irish,  i.  xxviii. 
Monasteries,  Kentish,  i.  cxxxix. 
Monasteries,  northern,  restoration,  ii. 

279. 
Monasti  e  s  robbed,  ii.  378. 
Monastic   life,    age   for   entering,  ii. 

334. 
Monastic       privileges,       see       also 

Forgeries,  Privileges. 
Monasticism,    i.    xl-xliii,     xlix-lxiv, 

258,  259,  265-267. 
Monk,  first  to  be  Pope,  ii.  64. 
Monks,  i.  xxiv,  xxv  ;  iii.  253,  254  ; 

see  also  Rule. 
Monks,  clothing  of,  i.  285,  286. 
Monks  not  to  forsake  their  monastery, 

ii.  27. 
Monkwearmouth,  see  Wearmouth. 
Monothelite   controversy,  i.    xvi ;  ii. 

65,  69,  70,   78,  81,  82,  326,  342, 

344,  .354. 
Mons,  i.  120. 

Mont  St.  Michel,  i.  20,  21  ;  ii.  435. 
Montacute,  Anthony,  Lord,  iii.  98. 
Montalembert,  Monks  of  the   West^ 

i.  clxxiii. 
Monte  Casino,  i.   160,  253  ;  ii.  352 ; 

iii.  349. 
Montgomery,  i.  52. 
Moon,  new,  ii.  336. 
Moore,  John,  Bishop  of  Ely,  i.  c. 
Mopsuestia,  ii.  326. 
Morals,  English,  ii.  162. 
Morals  at  Coldingham,  iii.  206,  207. 
Morison,  St.  Easily  i.  clxxvi. 
Morocco,  ii.  339. 
Moulsey,  i.  cxlvii  ;  ii.  46. 
Mount  Cignes  (Mont  des  Cignes),  i. 

116;  iii.  354. 
Mouse  in  liquid,  iii.  243. 
Mowbray,  Robert  de,  i.  86,  87. 
Muawiah,  i.  230  ;  ii.  60. 
Much  Wenlock,  iii.  211. 
Mudpieraleges,  iii.  35. 
Muhammedanism,  i.  229-236. 
Muigeo,  i.  197. 


428 


INDEX 


Muir  n-Giudan,  i.  130. 

Mul  (Mol,  Mulus),  i.  cxxxv  ;  ii.  132, 

137,  138,  357,  428,  429. 
MuUuc,  St.,  i.  cviii. 
Mundham,  iii.  390. 
Munecaceastre,  ii.  278. 
Munich,  i.  Ixxiii. 

Munster,  i.  71,  loi,  102  ;  ii.  151. 
Murrisk,  i.  197. 
Music,  i.  317;  ii.  48,  398,  456  ;  iii. 

140. 
Muspell,  iii.  288. 
Myldryde,  see  Mildred. 
Myredah,  ii.  222. 
Mythology,  Teutonic,  iii.  281,  282. 

Naitan,  Naiton,  see  Nechtan. 
Names,    Saxon,    spelling,  i.    clxxix : 

variable  terminations,  iii.  135. 
Nantechildis,   wife    of   Dagobert,   i. 

296,  300. 
Naples,  i.  Ixxiii,  234,  253. 
"Natural"  daughter,  iii.  224. 
Nechtan   (Naitan,    Naiton,    Nectan), 

King  of  the    Picts,   ii.    107,    311, 

316;  iii.  138,  366. 
Necromancy,  i.  Ixviii. 
Nectanesmore,  ii.  107. 
Nectan's  ford,  battle,  ii.  502. 
Nectan's  Fort,  ii.  107. 
Needle,  St.  Wilfrid's,  i.  376. 
Nene,  ii.  410. 

Nerienda,  Abbess,  i.  cxxxvii. 
Nestorians,  ii.  65,  82,  336. 
Netheravon,  ii.  193. 
Neustria,  i.  166,  294,  300 ;  ii.  33. 
Neustria,  Kings  of,  i.  clxxxi. 
Neville  of  Raby,  John,  Lord,  iii.  82. 
Neville's  Cross  battle  won  by  relics, 

iii.  79. 
New  Rome,  see  Constantinople. 
Newbiggin,  iii.  351. 
Newcastle-on-Tyne,  i.  86,  89,  99 ;  ii. 

278  ;  iii.  22,  ^2,  332. 
Newman,  J.  H.,  ii.  149. 
Nicaea,  i.  351. 

Nicene  Council,  i.  188;  iii.  241. 
Nicomedia,  ii.  354. 
Nidd,   Synod  at,    ii.    223-226,   506 ; 

iii.  151. 
Niduarii,  iii.  34-38. 
"Nifleheimer,"  iii.  281,  288. 
Nigel,  Bishop,  iii.  216. 
Nile,  i.  171. 

Niridamus  (Hindamus),  i.  252. 
Nithard,  i.  cxiv. 
Niuemum,  i.  cxli. 
N  odder  (Nodz,  Noodr),  river,  i.  cxliv  ; 

ii.  494. 


Noenan,  see  Eoghenan. 

Nones  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  29. 

Norfolk,  ii.  52, 

Norham,  ii.   516,  517;   iii.   59,   131, 

385- 
Norman  Conquest,    effect,   iii.    305, 

306. 
Norsemen,  iii.  309. 
Northbald,  Abbot,  ii.  372. 
Northbert,   Bishop    of  Elmham,    ii. 

419. 
North-burh,  i.  332. 
North  Burton,  iii.  157. 
North  Elmham,  see  Elmham. 
Northumberland,  iii.  266,  303. 
Northumbria,    i.    xxv,    xxvii,    xxviii, 
XXX,  xxxvii,  cv,  cxv,   i-ioo,   123, 
125-159,   164,  174,   182-196,  199, 
204-214,  219-227,  249,  307,  319, 
336-349;    ii-    II,   35-42,   49,    51, 
69,  91,  97,  loi,  102,  105-112,  132, 
147-156,  171,   181,  184,  199-201, 
219-229,  233,  248,  253,  254,  279, 
360,  364,  373,  502-517  ;  iii.  I -1 74, 
189,  266,  303,  310,  318,  328-330, 
337,  356,  358,. 360. 
Northumbria,    Bishops  of,   i.  clxxxv, 

clxxxvi. 
Northumbria,   Kings   of,   i.    clxxxii- 

clxxxiv. 
North  wold,  Bishop,  iii.  216. 
Norway,  iii.  314. 
Norwich,  iii.  390. 
Nostell  Priory,  i.  70* 
Nothelm,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

i.  Ixxxvii,  xcvi,  civ,  cv,  clxi. 
Nothelm,  King,  see  Nunna. 
Nothelm,  priest,  i.  ciii,  cxix;  ii.  371. 
Nothgith,  i.  cxlviii,  cxlix. 
Noyon,  i.  116  ;  ii.  264,  265. 
Nulluc,  St.,  i.  cviii. 
Numerals,  allegorical  interpretation, 

iii.  344. 
Nun,  first  English,  iii.  185. 
Nuneaton,  iii.  184. 
Nunna  (Nothelm,  Nun,  Numa),  King, 

i.  cxlviii-cl ;  ii.  430,  448. 
Nunneries,  i.  xliii :    Celtic,  iii.   182  : 

discipline,  iii.  176. 
Nuns,  clothing,  ii.  485. 
Nuns,   royal  and  high-born,  i.  xxix, 

clxxviii ;  iii.  175-237. 
Nursling,  ii.  444. 
Nursted,  iii.  227,  391, 
Nuthurst,  i.  clvii. 
Nutshell,  iii.  203. 

Oat  cakes,  iii.  385. 
Oaths  respected,  ii.  59. 


INDEX 


429 


Oberlonon,  i.  71. 

Obodriti,  i.  298. 

Occ,  ii.  511. 

Occam,  Nicholas  of,  i.  Ixxv. 

Oddo,  founder  of  Tewkesbury  Abbey, 

ii.  388,  389- 
Odin,  iii.  367. 

Odo,  Abbot  of  Battle,  iii.  210. 
Odo,  Archbishop   of  Canterbury,  ii. 

243;  iii.  172. 
Odo,  Cardinal  of  Ostia,  iii.  210. 
O'Donnell  clan,  iii.  133. 
Odulf,  St.,  ii.  396. 
Oedilburga,  see  ^Ethelburga. 
(Edilred  (Hodilred),  i.  clxviii. 
Offa,  ancestor  of  Mercian  Kings,   i. 

48. 
Offa,  King  of  Essex,  i.  Iviii,  clxxxiii ; 

ii.   377,    394,  424,    425,  43^;    iii. 

209,  367. 
Offa,  King  of  Mercia,  i.  cxlix,  clvii, 

clxiv,  51,  63  ;  ii.  121. 
Offa,  King  (fictitious),  i.  clxxi ;  ii.  34. 
Offenham,  iii.  211. 
Oftfor,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  i.  clvi, 

clx,  clxxxvi ;  ii.  161,  185,  186,  384, 

389,  390. 
Oiddi,  ii.  115. 
Oidilwald     (^thelwald,      Edilwald, 

Ethelwold),  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne, 

i.  clxxxvi;  ii.   515;   iii.   109,   no, 

118,  120-122,  129. 
Oidilwald,  King  of  Deira,  i.  clxxxiii, 

74,  75,  93,  94,  125-127,  133,  134, 

141,  153,  205,  207;  ill.  351. 
Oidilwald,    priest,   hermit  of  Fame, 

iii.  57,  120,  121. 
Oidilwald,  see  also  ^thelwald. 
Oisen,  see  Oswin. 
Olwfwolthu,  i.  347. 
Omolincq,  Abbot,  i.  clxiv. 
Ondred,  ii.  132. 
Ongen,  son  of  Offa,  i.  48. 
Onna,  see  Anna. 
Onswini,  see  Oswin. 
Opide,  river,  iii.  13. 
Ordericus  Vitalis,  iii.  384. 
Orders,  iii.  250,  251. 
Orders,  Celtic,  validity  of,  i.  350-356. 
Ordination  of  bishops,  i.    140,  350, 

351- 
Ordination  by  heretics,  iii.  241. 

Ordinations,  iii.  251. 
Organs,  ii.  497  ;  iii.  370,  371. 
Origen,  i.  163,  258. 
Orleans,  i.  211. 
Orleans,  Council  of,  i.  35 1. 
Ormisby,  iii.  59. 
Ornamentation,  iii.  312-316. 


Osa,  "Bishop,"  i.  cl. 

Osburga,  nun,  ii.  477  ;  iii.  232. 

Osfrid,  i.  cxxxvi. 

Osfrith,  Prefect,  ii.  98,  100. 

Osgitha   (Osgith),   St.,  ii.  484,  485; 

iii.  373- 
Osguid,  see  Oswy. 
Oshelm,  i.  cxliii. 
Oshere,  sub-King  of  the  Hwiccii,  i. 

clviii-clxiv  ;  ii.  385,  391  ;  iii.  203. 
Osingadum,  see  Easington. 
Oslawa  (Oslava),  wife  of  Eormenred, 

i.  244  ;  iii.  225. 
Osmund,  King  (fictitious),  i.  cl. 
Osmund,  St.,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  ii. 

498,  499. 
Osred  (Osrith),  Kingof  Northumbria, 

i.  clxxxiii;  ii.  221,  222,  378,  425, 

444,   504-508,  510;  iii.   131,    154, 

157,  161. 
Osric,  i.  cl. 
Osric,  King  of  Deira,  i.  clxxxii,  5-7, 

75- 
Osric,    King    of    Northumbria    and 

sub-regulus    of    the     Hwiccas,    i. 

cxlvii,  cxlviii,  clxv,  clxvi,  clxxxiii, 

clxxxiv,  186  ;  ii.  384-388,  508-510  ; 

iii.  368. 

Osrith,  see  Osred. 

Ossa,  see  Oswy. 

Ossory,  ii.  152. 

Ossu,  see  Oswy. 

Osthryth  (Osthryda,  Osthrytha), 
Queen  of  Mercia,  i.  clvi,  62,  70, 
227  ;  ii.  42,  47,  49,  382,  390. 

Ostrogoths,  i.  298. 

Osu,  Osuio,  Osuiu,  see  Oswy. 

Osvald's  saga,  i.  72. 

Oswald,  brother  of  Osric,  i.  clviii ;  ii. 
385,  386,  388. 

Oswald,  St.,  King  of  Northumbria, 
i.  cv,  clxxxii,  1-75,  80,  93,  100, 
125,  127,  131,  141,  153;  ii.  37; 
iii.  97,  205,  348  :  Aidan's  influence, 
i.  32,  33  :  wins  battle  of  Heaven- 
field,  i.  11-14;  iii.  303:  ascends 
throne,  i.  16:  birth,  i.  9:  Bret- 
walda,  i.  34,  35,  50  :  character,  i. 
54,  55  :  children,  i.  74  :  dedications, 
i.  50,  70-73,  80  ;  iii.  351  :  depicted 
with  Cuthberht,  i.  60,  61,  67;  iii. 
92  :  exile,  i.  5,  9,  10  :  humility,  i. 
33,  34 '-  killed  at  Maserfield,  i.  50- 
54 :  miracles,  i.  55-57,  65,  68-70, 
73;  ii.  117,  203,  234,  402  :  relics, 
i.  55,  58-70,  73  ;  ii-  203,  234  ; 
iii.  57,  70,  71,  350:  saint  and 
martyr,  i.  54 :  sends  for  Scottish 
bishop,     i.     16,     17:     vision     of 


430 


INDEX 


Columba,  i.  10 :  Life  of  St. 
Osivald,  iii.  346. 

Oswald,  St.,  Archbishop  of  York,  ii. 
242,  243  ;  iii.  172. 

Oswald's  tree,  i.  56. 

Oswald's  well,  i.  53. 

Oswaldkirk,  i.  70. 

Oswestry,  i.  50,  51,  54,  70. 

Oswid  (Oswido,  Oswud),  i.  clx,  clxiv. 

Oswin,  King  of  Deira,  i.  clxxxii, 
clxxxiii,  7,  75,  79-92,  97,  125,  154, 
155.  219,  378;  ii.  100:  Cross  at 
Collingham,  i.  91,  92  :  miracles,  i. 
88,  89  :  relics  and  shrine,  i.  83-89. 

Oswini  (Oswyn),  fictitious  King  of 
Kent,  i.  cxxxv,  cxxxvi ;  ii.  126. 

Oswin's  thorpe,  iii.  351. 

Oswy  (Ossa,  Ossu,  Osu,  Osuic), 
King  of  Northumbria,  i.  cxxiv, 
cxxv,  clxxxii,  5,  6,  58,  74-81,  91, 
93,  94,  122,  123,  125-134,  136, 
138*  139)  155)  156,  160,  168,  183- 
187,  194,  195,  199,  205,  208,  211, 
212,  214,  216-219,  221-227,  251, 
252,  306,  307,  319,  330,  331,  337, 

347,  348,  350,  353)  378 ;  ii.  34,  37, 
40,  50,  149,  150,  221,  387,  507, 
509  ;  iii.  61,  189,  193,  197,  201, 
204-206,  265,  346,  350,  364:  at 
synod  of  Whitby,  i.  186,  187,  194, 
195  :  Bretwalda,  i.  132,  133,  183  : 
children,  i.  226,  227  :  later  days 
and  character,  i.  225,  226  ;  patron 
of  Aidan,  i.  76  :  quarrel  with 
Alchfrid,  i.  221-223  •  struggle  with 
Penda,  i.  125-132;  iii.  356:  visits 
Maserfield,  i.  76. 

Oswyn,  see  Oswin. 

Osyth,  St.,  ii.  44;  iii.  391,  392. 

Othman,  i.  230. 

Otho  I.,  i.  72. 

Otho  II.,  ii.  143. 

Othon,  mayor  of  the  palace,  i.  301, 
302. 

Othona,  i.  142. 

Otton,  see  Othon. 

Ouen  (Audoenus),  St.,  Bishop  of 
Rouen,  i.  296,  297  ;  ii,  259,  264. 

Ouestraefelda,  ii.  197. 

Ouini,  see  Wini. 

Oundle,  i.  330  ;  ii.  233,  235,  238. 

Ouse,  ii.  409. 

Overton,  iii.  59. 

Ower  Park,  iii.  353. 

Owin,  see  Wini. 

Oxford,  i.  40,  41  ;  ii.  397  ;  iii.  227, 
364,  389,  391. 

Oxford  University,  first  M.A.,  iii.  152. 

Oxfordshire,  i.  40,  328 ;  ii.  120. 


Pachomius,  St.,  i.  275,  281,  282;  iii. 

183. 
Padda,  ii.  115. 
Paddlesworth,  i.  70. 
Padduwel,  ii.  516. 
Paegnalaech,  i.  205. 
Paeogthath   (Peogthah,  Peohthal),    i. 

clxix,  clxx ;  ii.  424. 
Pagan    customs    forbidden,    ii.    335, 

336. 
Paganism,  i.  xxv. 
Paganism,   East  Saxons  revert  to,  i. 

138. 
Paganism  in  Christianity,  ii.  173. 
Paganism  in  England,  i.   132. 
Paganism,  victory  of,  at  Maserfield,  i. 

74. 
Paintings,  li.  275  ;  iii.  365. 
Paisley,  iii.  390. 
Palatiolum,  iii.  201. 
Palermo,  ii.  78. 
Palestine,  i.  xxvii,  ex,  169,  177,  255, 

304;  ii.  156. 
Palgrave's    English   Commonwealth^ 

i.  clxxvii. 
Pall,  conferred  on  Berhtwald,  ii.  362. 
Pall,  doubtful  if  received  by  Paulinus, 

ii,  24,  93. 
Pall  sent  to  Augustine,  ii.  10,  ii. 
Panna,  Panta,  see  Penda. 
Pante,  river,  i.  142. 
Pantesberie,  see  Pontesbury. 
Pantha,  see  Penda. 
Papacy,  i.  clxxvii. 
Papal  documents,  i.  cxix. 
Papal  letters,  i.  cxxiv. 
Paris,  i.  294,  305,  366  ;  ii.  72,  265  ; 

iii.  358. 
Parochial  system,  i.    xxxi,    33,   141  ; 

ii.  29,  177,  178. 
Partesbury,  see  Pontesbury. 
Partney,  abbey  of,  ii.  3S3,  401,  411. 
Paternus,  iii.  50. 
Patriarchates  destroyed,  ii.  339. 
Patriarchs,  i.  xxi. 
Patriarchs  deposed   by   Emperor,  ii. 

79-81. 
Patrick,  St.,  i.  28,  168  ;  ii.  311. 
Patrington,  iii.  155. 
Paul,  Abbot,  i.  180. 
Paul,  Deacon,  i.  cxviii. 
Paul,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  ii. 

330. 
Paul,  St.,  i.  97,  102. 
Paulinus,  Bishop   of  York,    i.  xxvii, 

cv,  3,  5,  22,  32,  55,  'je,  157,   186, 

207,    289,  382 ;    ii.  24,   93,  170  ; 

iii.  188,  303. 
Paulinus,  Eastern  Bishop,  i,  164, 


INDEX 


431 


Pavia,  i.  233  ;  ii.  58,  140,  349. 
Peada,  King  of  Mercia,   i.  99,    100, 
122,  123,  134,  136,  140,  218,   227, 

330,  331. 
Peak,  The,  i.  124. 
Peakirk  (Peykirk),  ii.  416. 
Peanfahel,  i.  Ixxxvi ;  ii.  104. 
Peasant  kings  of  Britain,  i.  16. 
Pecganham,  i.  clxviii. 
Pecland,  i.  124. 
Pecsretas,  i.  124. 
Pectarit,  King,  see  Berhther. 
Pecthelm  (Pehthelm),  Bishop  of  Whit- 
herne,  i.  cxiv ;  ii.  377,  444,  515; 
iii.  34,  38-40. 
Pectwine  (Pehtwine),  Bishop  of  Whit- 

herne,  iii.  34,  40. 
Peddle,  ii.  516. 
Pedivel,  ii.  516. 
Peers,  C.,  i.  clxxvii. 
Pega,  St.,  i.  137;  ii.  414-416. 
Pegeland,  ii.  416. 
Pehthehn,  see  Pecthelm. 
Pehtwine,  see  Pectwine. 
Pelagius,  i.  182. 
Pembrokeshire,  ii.  488. 
Penance,  ii.  405  ;  iii.  251,  261. 
Penda       (Banna,        Panna,       Panta, 
Pantha),  King  of  Mercia,  i.  clxxxii, 
clxxxiii,  4,   15,  35,  42,  43,  47-52, 
55,  58,  62,  74,  75,  77,  93,  94,  99, 
100,  115,  120,  122,   124-128,  131- 
133,  182,  183,  217,  218,  223,  226, 
319-321,   327,   348;    ii.   44,    373, 
418,   425 ;  iii.    3,    189,   209,    210, 
214,  225,  227,  356,  387. 
Pengerd,  see  Penward. 
Penitential,  Theodore's,   i.    clxxviii ; 

ii.  161-167. 
Pennard,  see  Penward. 
Penneltun,  i.  Ixxxvi ;  ii.  104. 
Pennine  range,  i.  15. 
Penrith,  ii.  108. 
Penta,  river,  i.  142. 
Penthecton,  ii.  329. 
Penwald,  ii.  408. 
Penward  (Pengerd,  Pennard),  i.  cxliii, 

cli. 
Peogthath,  Peohthal,  see  Pceogthath. 
Pepin,     mayor     of    the     palace     of 

Austrasia,  i.  294,  301,  302. 
Perigueux,  i.  295. 
Perjury,  iii.  242,  363,  3S5. 
Peronne,    i.    116-119;    ii.    453;    iii. 

354,  355- 
Perrona  Scotorum,  i.  117. 
Pershore,  ii.  385,  386. 
Pesholme,  iii.  59. 
Peter,  Abbot,  iii.  322. 


Peter,  baptismal  name  of  Caedwalla, 

ii.  141. 
Peter,  Bishop,  i.  254. 
Peter,    Patriarch    of    Alexandria,    ii. 

330- 
Peter,  St.,  dedication,  ii.  472. 
Peter's  pence,  ii.  437,  438. 
Peterborough,    cxxvii,    cxxx,    cxxxii- 

cxxxiv,    clxxiii,    clxxiv,     62,     136, 

223,    330-334;    ii-    33,    187,   343, 

410,  411,  416  ;  iii.  210,  358,  387. 
Pfazel,  iii.  201. 
Philippa,  Queen,  iii.  15,  16. 
Philippicus    Bardanes,    Emperor,     i. 

clxxxii  ;  ii.  341,  354,  355. 
Phocas,  i.  231. 

Phonology,  Aldhelm's  views,  iii.  377. 
Piaton,  priest  and  martyr,  ii.  264. 
Picardy,  iii.  354. 
Pickering  Hills,  i.  154. 
Picts,  i.    35,    75;   ii.    40,    106,    no, 

112,  506;  iii.  173. 
Pictures,  see  Paintings. 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  iii.  82,  92. 
Pilgrimages,  i.  Ivi-lviii,  58,  90,   116, 

117,    332;  ii.    384,   434,  435;  iii. 

.315. 
Pilkington,  James,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

'}'  351- 
Pillows,  Cuthberht's,  iii.  88. 

Piltun,  i.  cliv. 

Piperings  (Piperinges),  i.  cl ;  ii.  449. 

Placidia,  ii.  79. 

Plague,  i.  XXV,  Ixxxiv,  cxlvi,  56,  205- 
207,  224,  250,  252,  307,  358  ;  li. 
117,  155,  172,  256,  301,  307,  30S, 
344,  403,  404,  422  ;  iii.  8,  10,  185, 
214,  231,  255,  350,  364,  368. 

Planasia,  i.  169. 

Pleghelmestun,  i.  clxix. 

Plegwin,  ii.  229. 

Plumbland,  iii.  59,  60. 

Plummer,  Rev.  C,  i.  v,  clxxv. 

Poelt,  see  Pouelt. 

Poetry,  Anglo-Saxon,  iii.  266. 

Pogonatos,  see  Constantine  IV. 

Poictiers,  ii.  260,  266;  iii.  183. 

Pole,  Reginald,  ii.  244. 

Polychronius,  ii.  81. 

Pontefract,  i.  Ixxvii,  Ixxix. 

Pontesbury  (Pantesberie,  Partesbury, 
Posentesbyrg,  Posentesbyrig),  i.  52, 
326,  Zi-]. 

Pontus,  i.  174,  257,  259,  260,  262. 

Poole,  ii.  464  ;  iii.  36. 

Pope,  a  foreigner,  ii.  201. 

Pope  and  the  Quinisext , Council,  ii. 

330,  351- 
Pope,  first  monk  to  become,  ii.  64. 


432 


INDEX 


Pope,  position  of,  ii.  2,  4,   7,  8,  10, 

13,  25,  264. 
Pope,  title,  i.  187. 
Pope,  visit  to  Constantinople,  ii.  341, 

353-355- 
Popes  of  Rome,  i.  clxxxi,  clxxxii. 
Popes,  Greek,  ii.  348-353- 
Popes,  history  of,  ii.  64-72,  343-356. 
Popes,  unlearned,  i.  xvi. 
Porchester,  i.  39. 
Portus,  ii.  78. 
Posentesbyrg,      Posentesb5Trig,       see 

Pontesbury. 
Pouelt  (Poelt,    Pouholt),   i.  clii-clv  ; 

ii.  450. 
Poverty  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  25. 
Prague,  i.  71- 

Prayer  for  impenitent,  iii.  393. 
Prayer  for  Wilfrid's  recovery,  ii.  230. 
Prayer  of  monks,  i.  272-275  ;  see  also 

Hours. 
Prayer,  mutual,  iii.  235. 
Prayer  restores  life,  i.  370. 
Prayer  to  be  offered  standing,  iii.  261. 
Prayer  under  a  veil,  iii.  260. 
Prayer-book  of  Alfred  the  Great,  iii. 

Precedence  of  English  saints,  ni.  88. 

Preface,  i.  ix-lxxxii. 

Pre- sanctified,  Mass  of  the,  ii.  334. 

Preston,  iii.  227,  391. 

Prestoune  Kirk,  iii.  119. 

Prestwick,  iii.  36. 

Priest's  duties,  iii.  250,  251. 

Priests,  resident,  increased,  i.  xxxi. 

Primacy    of    all    England,    spurious 

documents,  i.  cxxvii,  cxxviii. 
Prime,  i.  278. 
Privileges,  monastic,  i.  Ivi,  cxxiii-cxxx, 

cxxxiii,  cxxxvii,  cxxxviii,  cxl,  cliv, 

clxii,  clxxii ;  ii.  178,  470  ;  iii.  348  ; 

see  also  Forgeries. 
Prohseresius,  i.  254. 
Property,  private,  forbidden  to  nuns, 

iii.  178. 
Prophecy,  ii.   54,   55,   107-109,   149, 

414;  iii.  8,  9. 
Propontis,  ii.  327. 
Prostitution  by  pilgrims,  ii.  435. 
Prov.  Auxitana,  ii.  9. 
Provence,  i.  169,  300. 
Prufening,  i.  64. 
Prufling,  i.  64. 
Psalter   learned   by   Wilfrid,    i.   162, 

163. 
Psalter,  Oswin's,  i.  90. 
Pubba,  see  Pybba. 
Puch,  iii.  155-157. 
Pucklechurch,  ii.  499. 


Pudsey,  Bishop,  i.  Ixvi ;  iii.   16,  88, 

341- 
Purgatory,  i.  Ixiii,  Ixv  ;  ii.   129  ;  iii. 

339. 
Putstone,  ii.  399, 
Putta,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  i.  clxv, 

clxvi,    clxxxiv,    217,    317  ;   ii.   22, 

47-49.  398.  399. 
Pybba  (Pubba),  i.  48  ;  ii.  380. 
Pyrenees,  i.  295. 
Pyx,  Cuthberht's,  iii.  89. 

Quantock  Wood,  i.  cli. 

Quantovic,  see  Etaples. 

Quarrelling  among  nuns,  iii.  178,  179. 

Quartodecimans,  i.  209,  355. 

Queensferry,  ii.  103. 

Quenburga,  see  Cuenburga. 

Quentavic,  see  Etaples. 

Queongyth,  iii.  236. 

Quinisext  Council,  ii.  327-338,  349, 

351  ;  iii.  367. 
Quintin,  ii.  264. 

Quintus  Lucius  Sabinianus,  i.  129. 
Quiricus,  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  ii.  4. 
Quoenguyda,  i.  clxxiii. 

Raculf,  see  Reculver. 
Radegunda,  St.,  iii.  183,  362. 
Radulf  (Rodulf),  Duke  of  Thuringia, 

i.  299,  301. 
Raedfrid,  i.  306. 
Raegremaeld,  see  Riemmelth. 
Raggewalh,  i.  332. 
Ragnetrude,  wife  of  Dagobert,  i.  296. 
Raimund,  iii.  211. 
Raine,  James,  i.  clxxvi. 
Ramshofen,  i.  64. 
Ransom,  iii.  167,  243. 
Ranulf,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  iii. 

76-   ... 
Rape,  iii.  261. 

Ratherius,  Bishop  of  Verona,  iii.  264. 

Rathmat,  i.  102. 

Rathmelsige,  ii.  404. 

Ratisbon,  i.  71. 

Ravenglas,  i.  133  ;  iii.  316. 

Ravenna,    ii.    76,  'j?),  348 ;   iii.  308, 

313. 
Ravenna,  Archbishop  declines  to  go 

to  Rome,  i.  238,  239. 
Ravenna,  Exarchate  of,  i.  xvii. 
Reading  by  nuns,  iii.  178. 
Rebaise,  i.  297. 
Rebaptism,  ii.  165,  166. 
Recceswintha,  King  of  the  Visigoths, 

i.  clxxxi. 
Reconciliation,  iii.  246,  247. 
Reconsecration,  i.  355 ;  iii.  359- 


INDEX 


433 


Reculver   (Raculf),   i.    cxxxix,  clxvii, 

198,  317-319;  ii-  189,  190,  359. 

Redbridge,  ii.  136. 

Redeford,  ii.  136. 

Redel,  Bishop,  iii.  216. 

Redmersell,  iii.  59. 

Redwald,  King  of  East  Anglia,  ii. 
418. 

Reedford,  ii.  136. 

Reeves,  Dr.,  i.  clxxvi. 

Refectory  in  monasteries,  i.  25. 

Reggio,  i.  234  ;  ii.  79. 

Reginald  of  Durham,  LibcHus,  i. 
cxv,  cxvi  :  Works,  iii.  346. 

Reinfred,  ii.  278. 

Relics,  i.  Ixix-lxxiii,  Ixxix,  34,  44- 
46,  57-68,  73,  83-88,  90,  91,  94, 
95>  99,  116,  117,  137,  154,  165, 
198,  37ij  380;  ii.  89,92,  loi,  120, 
203,  213,  238,  241-245,  25s,  263, 
273,  274,  396,  397,  416,  421,  470, 
498,  499,  516,  517  ;  iii.  9,  57,  69- 
71,  79,  86,  ^T,  98,  99,  108,  120, 
121,  133,  140,  148,  149,  162,  163, 
172,  207,  209,  210,  227-229,  250, 

339,  340,  352,  355,  390. 
Reliquaries,  ii.  263,  271,  272. 
Remigius  of  Auxerre,  i.  Ixxxviii. 
Remiremont,  i.  297  ;  iii.  183. 
Rendelsham,  Rendlaesham,    i.    152  ; 

ii.  418. 
Renired,  Bishop,  i.  cxlix, 
Repton,    i.   135,    356  ;    ii.  408,  413, 

414,  418;  iii.    184,  203,   212,  220, 

221,  36S,  386. 
Rheims,  ii.  8. 
Rhine,  i.  302. 
Rhodes,  i.  230,  232. 
Rhone  valley,  i.  xvii. 
Rhun,  i.  75. 

Rhythm,  Aldhelm's  viev^^s,  iii.  380. 
Ribble,  i.  378. 
Ricbod,    Archbishop    of    Treves,    i. 

xcvii. 
Richard,  Abbot  of  Ely,  iii.  216,  220, 

223. 
Richard,  Abbot  of  St.  Albans,  iii.  76. 
Richard,  Bishop,  iii.  392. 
Richard,  Prior,  History  of  the  Church 

of  Hexham,  i.  cxv. 
Richard  i.,  i.  cxxxiv. 
Richard  ii.,  iii.  88. 
Richmond    Archdeaconry,     i.      379, 

.380. 
Richmondshire,  i.  3  ;  iii.  59. 
Ricinghaam  (Ricingahaam),  i.  clxviii, 

clxxii. 
Riddles,  iii.  377,  378. 
Ridinges,  iii.  155. 

VOL.  III. — 28 


Riemmelth    (Raegremaeld),    wife    of 

Oswy,  i.  75,  226. 
Rimid,  i.  98. 
Ring,  episcopal,  ofCuthberht,  iii.  98, 

99- 
Ripon,  i.  ex,  60,  184,  221,  307,  367, 

370-381  ;  ii.  39,  54,  158,  1S2,  183, 

200,  202,  206,  221,  223,  227,  230, 

232,  235,  236,  242,  247,  256-258  ; 
ui.  6,  18,  64,  120,  357,  364. 

Rippcl,  see  Ribble. 
Rippell,  i.  clviii,  clix. 
Rochdale,  i.  357  ;  ii.  251  ;  iii.  359. 
Rochester,  i.  cxxxiii,  cxxxvii,  76,  142, 
148,  249,  260,  316,  317,  331  ;  ii.  1, 

47,  51,  364,  398;  iii.  361. 

Rochester,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxiv, 
clxxxv. 

Rodalgus,  iii.  352. 

Roderic,  King  of  the  Visigoths,  i. 
clxxxii. 

Rodulf,  see  Radulf. 

Roeulx,  i.  120. 

Rois  faineants,  i.  246. 

Roman  influence  on  Northumbrian 
Church,  i.  157.J 

Roman  provincial  synod,  ii.  68-79, 
82. 

Roman  rites  and  Celtic  rites,  differ- 
ences, i.  55. 

Roman  supremacy  disputed,  i.  264. 

Roman  use,  iii.  8,  18. 

Romanus,  see  Ronan. 

Rome,  i.  xvi-xviii,  xl,  liv,  Ivi,  Iviii, 
Ixxxiv,  cxxviii,  147,  157,  160,  162, 
164,  165,  168,  225,  233,  234,  238, 
287,  304  ;  ii.  55,  59,  65,  89,  139- 
141,  185,  201,  202,  213,  231,  232, 
253,  254,  274,  275,  300,  301,  317, 

349,  355,  356,  384,  392,  394,  416, 
425,  448,  468,  470,  497,  501,  515  ; 
iii.  140,  167,  209,  227,  309,  315, 
321,  322,  337,  358,  365  :  English 
school  at,  ii.  436-438. 

Romney  Marsh,  ii.  113. 

Romscot,  ii.  437,  438. 

Romuald,    Duke  of  Beneventum,    i. 

233,  235. 

Ronan  (Romanus),  i.  157,  158,  187. 

Roric,  Bishop  of  Limoges,  ii.  269. 

Rosnat,  see  Whitherne. 

Roth  bury,  iii.  316,  319. 

Rouen,  i.  296 ;  ii.  8. 

Rowley  water,  i.  14. 

Royth,  i.  75,  226. 

Rufinianus,  i.  237. 

Rule  of  St.  Basil,  i.  267-2S6. 

Rule  of  St.  Ccesarius,  iii.  176-182. 

Rule  of  Lindisfarne,  i.  25. 


434 


INDEX 


Rum,  i.  75,  226. 

Runes,  iii.    269-271,  307,  310,  311, 

318-320. 
Ruringaham,  iii.  3. 
Rushworth,  see  Ruthwell. 
Russia,  i.  299. 
Ruthwell,  i.   133,  340;  iii.  37,   146, 

269,  304,  306,  308,  309,  316-320. 
Rutlandshire,  iii.  210. 
Ryal,  iii.  210. 

Saale,  i.  298. 

Sabercht,  King  of  Essex,  i.  clxxxii, 

clxxxiii,  138,  241. 
Sacrifice,  ii.  333. 
Sacrilege,  iii.  239,  240. 
Saelred,  see  Selred. 
Saethryth  (Saethryd),  Abbess  of  Brie, 

i.  121  ;  iii.  225. 
Sseward,  King   of  Essex,   i.   clxxxii, 

138,  224. 
Ssexred,  King   of  Essex,    i.    clxxxii, 

138. 
St.  Abb's  Head,  iii.  205. 
St.  Alban's,  i.  87,  88  ;  ii.  298. 
St.  Alban's  Head,  ii.  464. 
St.  Aldhelm's  Head,  ii.  464. 
St.  Algise,  iii.  352. 
St.  Andrews,  iii.  141. 
St.  Bees  in  Copeland,  iii.  196. 
St.  Bonnet  d'Avalouze,  ii.  272. 
St.  Boswell's,  iii.  5. 
St.  Denis,  i.  297,  303. 
St.  Gallen,  i.  100  ;  iii.  49. 
St.  Honorat,  St.  Honore,  i.  169,  170. 
St.  John's  Lee,  iii.  154. 
St.  Keyne,  iii.  197. 
St.  Marguerite,  Provence,  i.  169. 
St.   Maurice  d'Agaune,  ii.  270,  273, 

275- 
St.  Michael's  Mount,  i.  21. 
St.  Oswald's,  i.  12,  14,  70. 
Saintes,  i.  295. 
Saints,  canonisation  of,  i.  Ixxvi ;  iii. 

339,  340. 
Saints,   English,  not  recognised,  lii. 

340. 

Saints,  hereditary,  i.  Ixxvii. 

Saints,  Lives  of,  as  authorities,  iii.  346. 

Saints'      bodies      uncorrupted,      see 

Corpses. 
Saints'  days,    observance   at   Lindis- 

farne,  i.  27. 
Salic  laws,  i.  299. 
Salkeld,  iii.  59,  60. 
Salton,  iii.  171. 
Saltworks,  i.  clvii. 
Salvin,  i.  170.5 
Salwerpe,  river,  i.  clvi,  clvii. 


Salzburg,  i.  71. 

Sambuce,  ii.  307,  507. 

Samer,  ii.  139. 

Samo,  ruler  of  the  Tscheques,  i.  298, 

299. 
Sanctuary,  i.  377  ;   ii.   336 ;   iii.    62, 

164,  166,  167. 
Sanday  Island,  iii.  133. 
Sandoe,  ii.  307. 
Sandwich,  i.  215,  247. 
Sandwich,  Juliana  de,  iii.  186. 
Sapwic,  i.  cliv. 
Saracens,  i.  229-231,  287  ;  ii.  60,  61, 

79,  326,  339-341- 
Sardinia,  i.  234. 
Saturnus,  ii.  268. 
Sauris,  i.  64. 
Savenieres,  ii.  260. 

Saxon  churches,  see  Churches,  Saxon. 
Saxonia,  i.  113,  116. 
"  Saxons,"  applied  to  Northumbrians, 

ii.  319  ;  iii.  366. 
Saxony,  ii.  85. 

Saxulf,  Abbot,  see  Saxwulf,  Bishop. 
Saxulph,  son  of  Saxulf  the  Count,  i. 

clxxv. 
Saxwulf  (Saxulf),  Bishop  of  Lichfield, 

i.  clviii,  clxxiv,  clxxxvi,  330-333  ; 

"•  33,  35,    48-50,  184,   187,  381, 

385,  398  ;  iii.  358. 
Scaelfremere,  i.  332. 
Scarrington,  iii.  171. 
Scent  of  saints'  bodies,  iii.  69,  210. 
Scethis,  i.  171. 

Schism,  i.  xx,  xxix,  xxxii  ;  ii.  349. 
Scholastica,  nun,  ii.  477  ;  iii.  232. 
School,  Canterbury,  see  Canterbury. 
School,  English,  at  Rome,  see  Rome. 
School  founded  by  Aidan,  i.  30. 
Schoolmasters,  i,  Ixxxv. 
Schools  in  Ireland,  see  Ireland. 
Schools   in   nunneries   forbidden,  iii. 

177. 
Scor burgh,  iii.  157. 
Scotland,  i.  xxvii,  5,  22,  36,  89,  112, 

136,   204;   ii.   57,    149,    310,  405, 

506;  iii.  15,  37,  63,  173,  205. 
Scotland,  Abbot,  iii.  228. 
Scots  language  used  by  Aidan,  i.  32. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  i.  338. 
Scottarit,  see  Shottery. 
Scottia  (Scotland),  i.  136. 
Scriptorium  at  Scyllacium,  iii.  337. 
Scripture  to  be  obeyed,  i.  279. 
Scyllacium,  iii.  331,  337.* 
Sea-fret,  ii.  241. 

Seal  of  Durham  Monastery,  i.  60,  61. 
Seal  of  Tynemouth  Abbey,  i.  90. 
Sebastopolis,  ii.  327. 


INDEX 


435 


Sebbi  (Sebbe),  King  of  Essex,  i.  Iviii, 
cvii,  cxxxv,  clxviii,  clxxiii,  clxxxiii, 
152,  223  ;  ii.  125,  126,  420-424. 

Seckington  (Secceswald),  iii.  386. 

Sedulius,  ii.  146. 

Sees,  Anglo-Saxon,  i.  clxxxiv- 
clxxxvi. 

Segbrok,  Richard  de,  i.  67  ;  iii.  86, 

Seghine  (Segeni),    Abbot   of  Hii,    i. 

17,  33,  321. 
Segrave,  John  de,  iii.  186. 
Selaeseu,  see  Selsey. 
Self-abuse,  iii.  261. 
Seligenstadt,  ii.  195. 
Selred  (Saelred),  King  of  Essex,   i. 

clxxxiii,  clxxxiv  ;  ii.  426. 
Selsey  (Selaeseu,  Selsea,  Seolesia),  i. 

civ,  cxlvii-cxlix,   56;  ii.    117,   118, 

448,  454. 

Sempad,  ii.  327. 

Sens,  i.  306  ;  ii.  8. 

Seolesia,  see  Selsey. 

Septimania,  i.  295  ;  ii.  340. 

Serapion,  i.  172. 

Serbandus  (Servandus),  iii.  336. 

Serenus,  i.  172. 

Sergius  i.,  St.,  Pope,  i.lxxxiv,  cxxxvii- 
cxxxix,  clxxxi ;  ii.  139,  144,  145, 
196,  198,  205,  209,  319,  339,  345, 

349-351,  355,   362,  469,  470;  iii. 

148,  367. 
Servandus,  see  Serbandus. 
Sesoald,  i.  233. 
Sevekesham,  see  Sheovesham. 
Seven,  number,  iii.  376. 
Severin,  Abbot  of  Agaune,  ii.  264. 
Severn,  river,  iii.  351. 
Seville,  i.  xvii,  xxxii  ;  ii.  4,  13. 
Seville,  Bishops   of,    precedence,    ii. 

4- 
Sewara,  w^ife  of  Anna,  i.  121,  138. 
Seward,  see  Sseward. 
Sewenna,  iii.  213. 
Sewera,  iii.  213. 
Sexbald,  i.  138,  i$z 
Sexburga,     Queen     of    Wessex,     i. 

clxxxiii  ;  ii.  31,  118;  iii.  219. 
Sexburga,  Queen  of  Kent  and  Saint, 

i.  121,  244,  246  ;  ii.   160;  iii.  215, 

219,  220,  222,  223,  347,  390. 
Sexburga,    Queen,    wife    of   Ini,    see 

^thelburga. 
Sexred,  see  Ssxred. 
Seythlecester,  i.  71. 
Shaftesbury,  i.  clxx,  clxxi. 
Sheep-shearing,  ii.  167. 
Shelswell,  iii.  389. 
Sheovesham  (Sevekesham),   ii.    121  ; 

iii.  363. 


Shepishee,  ii.  410. 

Sheppey,  i.  cxxxix  ;  ii.  160  ;  iii.  219, 

220,  388,  390. 
Sherborne,    i.    clxxi ;    ii.    447,    491, 

493- 
Sherborne,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxv. 
Sherwood  Forest,  iii.  349. 
Shottery  (Scottarit),  i.  clvii. 
Shrewsbury,  i.  52  ;  iii.  349. 
Shropshire,  i.  50,  51,  328. 
Sibba,  iii.  13. 
Sicily,  i.  xviii,    Ixxiii,  232,  234  ;   ii. 

60,  349. 
Sideleshamstede,  ii.  449. 
Sidlaw  Hills,  ii.  107. 
Sidnaceaster,  ii.  401. 
Siegfrid,  see  Sigfrid. 
Siesta  of  the  monks,  iii.  19,  384. 
Sigebald  (Sigbald),  i.  138  ;  ii.  430. 
Sigeberht    (the    Learned),    King    of 

East  Anglia,  i.  Iviii,  cv,  clxxxii,  49, 

100,  loi,  113-115,  120,  131. 
Sigeberht  (the  Good),  St.,  King   of 

Essex,    i.   clxxxiii,    99,    100,     138, 

139,  151,  152,  224;  ii.  426. 
Sigeberht  (the  Little),  King  of  Essex, 

i.  clxxxii,  clxxxiii,  138. 
Sigeberht,  King  of  Wessex,  iii.  386. 
Sigebert,  King  of  Austrasia,  i.   loo, 

296,  300-302;  ii.  38. 
Sigebrand,  Bishop  of  Paris,  i.  166. 
Sigegytha,  i.  cxiv. 
Sigfrid   (Siegfrid,  Sigred),  Abbot   of 

Wearmouth,  ii.  243,  276,  301,  303, 

304,  306;  iii.  5,  6,   149,  152,  352, 

.366. 
Sighard  (Sigeheard),  King  of  Essex, 

i.  clxviii,    clxxii,  clxxxiii ;  ii.  423, 

424. 
Sighere  (Sigheri),  King  of  Essex,  i. 

clxxiii,  clxxxiii,   152,   223  ;  ii.  377, 

420-422,  424  ;  iii.  209. 
Sigred,  see  Sigfrid. 
Silchester,  ii.  297. 
Silvester,  St.,  Pope,  iii.  340,  370. 
Simeon,  i.  67. 
Simon  Magus,  ii.  309,  311,  315,  316, 

.487. 
Simony,  i.  xxi,  224,  324 ;  ii.  25,  349. 
Singing,    ii.    69,  70,  298,  307,  308, 

456,  463  ;  iii.  178,  263,  329. 
Sinodum,  i.  41. 

Sisinand,  Visigothic  King,  i.  197. 
Sisinnus,  Pope,  i.  clxxxi ;  ii.  353. 
Siwara,  see  Sewara. 
Sizentius,  ii.  209. 
Slrepi,  i.  clxv. 
Slaves  and  slavery,  ii.  liS,  272,  372  ; 

iii.  250,  255,  257,  259,  261. 


436 


INDEX 


Slavs,    i.  232,  298,   299;   ii.  61-63, 

327. 
Slovenes,  i.  298. 
Smith,  G.,  i.  clxxv. 
Smith,   Richard,    Bishop  of  Chalce- 

don,  iii.  99. 
Smith  who  sang  psalms  while  work- 
ing, iii.  134,  135. 
Socrates,  i.  279. 

Soissons,  i.  64,  210,  211  ;  iii.  183. 
Solent,  ii.  134. 

Solignac,  i.  297  ;  ii.  259,  264,  268. 
Solvente,  ii.  134. 
Solway   Firth,  ii.    155;   iii.    34,  36, 

102,  316. 
Somerset,  i.  cxliii ;  ii.  431,  447,  487, 

494. 
Somerton,  ii.  427. 
Song,  heavenly,  i.  359-361. 
Soothsayers,  ii.  335. 
Sorabians,  i.  298. 
Sotevagina,    Archdeacon    of    York, 

iii.  166. 
South   Angles,  i.    cv,    35,    49,    100, 

134-136,  140,  223,  330,  349. 
South  Burton,  iii.  155. 
South  Elmham,  see  Elmham. 
South  Minster,  i.  cxxxix. 
South  Saxons,  i.  cv,  214  ;  ii.    429- 

431. 
South  Shields,  iii.  351,  389. 
Southcouton,  iii.  59. 
Southee,  ii.  410. 
Southwyke,  i.  cii. 
Soweie,  Sowy,  see  Middlezoy. 
Spain,  i.  xviii,  xix,  clxxviii,  297  ;  ii. 

2-20,  72,  340 ;  iii.  360,  369, 
Spalis,  ii.  4. 

Spencer,  Lord  Hugh,  i.  Ixxix. 
Spires,  i.  72. 
Spondon,  iii.  221,  390. 
Sponsors,  ii.  334 ;  iii.  39. 
Staffordshire,  i.  328,  357  ;  ii.  41. 
Stainmoor,  i.  133. 
Stallington,  ii.  34. 
Stamford,  i.  183  ;  iii.  94. 
Stamford  Bridge,  i.  184. 
Standard,  Battle  of  the,  ii.  241. 
Stanford,  i.  332. 
Stapulford,  i.  cxxxvi. 
Stavelot,  i.  297. 
Stephanus,  eunuch,  ii.  325. 
Stephen,  see  /Eddi. 
Stephen,  Abbot  of  St.  Mary,  York, 

iii.  76. 
Stephen,   Bishop  of  Corinth,  ii.  79, 

81. 
Stephen,  chaplain,  iii.  78. 
Stephen  11.,  Pope,  ii.  362. 


Stephen,  St.,  i.  67. 

Stephens,  George,  Runic  Monu- 
mcftts,  i.  clxxvi. 

Stepmother  marriage,  i.  241. 

Stevenson,  J.,  Chujxh  Historians ^ 
i.  clxxv. 

Stirling,  ii.  40. 

Stitheard,  monk,  iii.  58. 

Stoches,  iii.  210. 

Stodmarsh  (Stodmersch),  i.  cxxxvi ; 
ii.  129. 

Stoke  St.  Milburgh,  iii,  211. 

Stokes,  Miss,  Three  Months  in  the 
Forests  of  France,  i.  clxxvi. 

Stoneham,  ii.  136. 

Stonyhurst  College,  iii,  103. 

Stour,  river,  i.  cxxxvi ;  ii.  129. 

Stow,  Lincoln,  ii.  401. 

Stow,  Wedale,  i.  130, 

Stowe,  i,  357  ;  iii.  388. 

Strages  Gai,  i.  128. 

Straiton  in  Carrick,  iii.  36. 

Strassburg,  ii,  58. 

Strathclyde,  iii.  34. 

Strathearn,  i.  36. 

Streaneshealh,  Streonaeshalch, 
Strenaeshalh,  Streoneshalch, 
Streuneshalse,   see  Whitby. 

Strensall,  iii.  192. 

Stret,  i.  cliv. 

Stretlea  (Stretlee),  i,  cxlvi ;  iii.  348. 

Stronglic,  dux,  i.  clxiv. 

Strymon,  i.  256. 

Stubbs,  Bishop,  i.  clxxvi. 

Sturia,  ii.  361. 

Sturige  (Sturregia),  i.  cxxxv,  cxxxvi. 

Sturmi,  St.,  ii.  257. 

Styria,  i.  72,  298. 

Suaebhard  (Suebbaerd,  Suebred, 
Swaebhard,  Swefred),  King  of 
Kent,  i.  cxxxv,  cxxxvi,  clxviii- 
clxx,  clxxiii ;  ii.  125,  126,  357, 
361,  423,  424;  see  also  Swaefred. 

Succession,  Royal,  among  Anglo- 
Saxons,  i.  245,  246. 

Succession  through  females,  ii.  106. 

Sudaneie  (Sudanie),  i.  cxxxv ;  ii. 
126. 

Suebbaerd,  Suebred,  see  Suaebhard. 

Suella,  ii.  397. 

Suevres,  ii.  260. 

Suffolk,  ii.  52  ;  iii.  355. 

Suicide,  iii.  256. 

Suidberht,  Abbot,  iii.  209. 

Suidberht,  Bishop,  i.  xxxviii ;  ii.  185, 
186. 

Suidfrid,  King,  i.  clxxii. 

Suidhelm,  King  of  Essex,  i.  152, 
224  ;  ii.  418. 


INDEX 


437 


Suinthila,  Visigothic  King,  i.  297. 

Suithred,  sec  Swaefred. 

Sulpicius  Severus,  ii.  488. 

Sumerford,  i.  cxlii. 

Sumerled,  iii.  *]%. 

Sunday,  i.   27,  28  ;  ii,    167  ;  iii.  245, 

246,  255. 
Sunday  marriages,  iii.  24S. 
Sundial,  iii.  308. 
Sungeova,  iii.  14. 
Sunninghall,  ii.  120. 
Surrey,     i.     cxlvii,    306 ;    ii.    42-44, 

357,  424>  431,  447. 

Sussex,  i.  306,  327,  335  ;  ii.  102, 
112-118,  132-134,  138,  147,  14S, 
170,  431,  447,  448;  iii.  363. 

Suthgedluit,  iii.  56. 

Suvvika,  i.  cii. 

Swaebhard,  see  Suaebhard, 

Swaefred  (Swefred),  King  of  Essex,  i. 
clxxxiii ;  ii.  125,  423,  424,  426; 
see  also  Suaebhard. 

Swaledale,  i.  79. 

Swanage,  ii.  464. 

Swanescamp,  i.  clxxiii. 

Swartebrand,  monk,  i.  62. 

Swearing,  ii.  338  ;  iii.  176. 

Swefred,  see  Suaebhard,  Swaefred. 

Swilton,  iii.  186. 

Swinburn,  i.  13. 

Swinescar,  ii.  197. 

Swithelm,  King  of  Kent,  i.  clxxxiii. 

Switzerland,  i.  xxvi. 

Sylviacus,  ii.  139. 

Symeon  of  Durham,  Works,  i.  cxv. 

Symeon  Stylites,  St.  i.  Ix. 

Synod,  Austerfield,  i.  ex  ;  ii,  196-202, 
207,  225:  Baccanchelde,  i.  cxxxviii- 
cxl ;  ii.  363  :  Clovesho,  i.  cxxxix, 
cxl  :  Ethcealchy,  ii.  385  :  Heath- 
field,  ii.  73-75,  418 :  Herutford,  i. 
309,  325;  ii.  2,  12,  20-30,  52, 
103 :  lona,  i.  16,  17  :  Milan,  ii. 
76 :  Nidd,  ii.  223-226,  364  : 
Roman,  ii.  68-79,  82 ;  iii.  363 : 
Twyford,  i.  clxxiv  :  West  Saxon, 
ii.  365  :  Whitby,  i.  cxxxiv,  98, 
185-196,  204,  210,  219,  323-325* 
370,  371  ;  ii.  67;  iii.  17,  194,357, 
358. 

Synods,  i.  xx,  xxi,  xxxi,  xlviii. 
Synods  to  be  summoned  twice  yearly, 

ii.  28. 
Syracuse,  i.  234,  235. 
Syria,  i.  232,  255,  287,  313,  314. 

Tabenna,  i.  177. 
Tadcaster,  iii.  186. 
Tai,  i.  64. 


Talbot,  Robert,  iii.  349. 

Talorcan  (Talarcain,  Tolarcain),  King 

of  the  Picts,  i.   6,   75,  219  ;  ii.  40, 

41,  106. 
Tamu,  ii.  46. 

Tamworth,  i.  cxlvii  ;  ii.  46. 
Tan,  river,  i.  cli,  clii ;  ii.  450. 
Tangier,  ii.  339. 
Tangmere,  i.  clxviii. 
Tanionilo,  ii.  268. 
Tapers,  iii.  250. 
Tarachus,  St.,  iii.  29. 
Tarantaise,  ii.  9. 
Tarent,  river,  see  Darent. 
Tarentum,  i.  233. 
Tarraco,  ii.  3. 
Tarraconensis,  ii.  3. 
Tarragona,  ii.  4. 
Tatberht,  Abbot,  i.  ex  ;  ii.  231-233, 

238,  242  ;  iii.  143. 
Tatfrid,    Bishop     of    Worcester,     i. 

clxxxvi ;  ii.  384. 
Tatwine    (Tatuini),     Archbishop    of 

Canterbury,  i.  clxxxv  ;  ii.  373,  409, 

413,451- 
Taunton,  i.  cli  ;  ii.  431. 
Taurinus,  Deacon,  ii.  73. 
Tay,  ii.  40. 

Teaching  at  Lindisfarne,  i.  30. 
Teaching    by  laymen    prohibited,   ii. 

336. 
Tears  in  preaching,  iii.  19,  20. 
Tecla  (Thecla),  nun,  ii.  477  ;  iii.  232. 
Tees,  i.  21. 
Tegernsee,  i.  64. 
Teilo,  see  Theau,  St. 
Temis,  see  Thames. 
Tennyson,  Lord,  iii.  366. 
Tenterden,  iii.  227,  391. 
Teoful,  iii.  200. 
Tepra,  i.  clxxi. 
Tertullian,  i.  28,  276. 
Tesgeta,  river,  iii.  12. 
Tetbury  (Tettan),  i.  cxli. 
Tetta  (Etan,  Eto),  ii.  408  ;  iii.  236. 
Tettan,  see  Tetbury. 
Teviot  (Tevyota),  iii.  12. 
Tewkesbury,  ii.  3S8,  3S9. 
Thames  (Temis),  i.  cxlii,  cxliii,  cxlv, 

clxix,  15. 
Thanet,  i.    xxiv,    cxiii,    cxiv,    cxxxv, 

cxxxvii,  cxxxix,  247,  248  ;  ii.  126, 

360,477;  iii.  211,  225,  226,  228; 

see  also  Minster. 
Theau  (Teilo,  Thillo),  St.,  i.  xxxvii ; 

ii.  264,  268. 
Theban  legion,  ii.  273. 
Thecla,  see  Tecla. 
Theobald,  Abbot,  ii.  405. 


438 


INDEX 


Theodore,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
i.  xxvi,  xxix-xxxii,  xxxv-xxxvii, 
xxxix,  xli,  xlii,  Ixxxiv,  cxxiv,  cxlvi, 
cHx,  clx,  clxv-clxviii,  clxxi-clxxiv, 
clxxxiv,  98,  99,  225,  248,  253,  254, 
265,  286-293,  304,  306,  337,  349, 
350,  352,  354,  356,  365,  366  ;  ii. 
I,  2,  II,  12,  21,  22,  25,  29,  32, 
33,  42,  49-54,  69-71,  73-75,  84, 
85,  87,  92,  93,  95,  97,  105,  126, 
127,  158-180,  183-185,  198,  210, 
225,  228,  253,  327,  356,  357,  361, 

363,  365,  367-369,  373,  384,  385, 
388,  419,  420,  440,  444,  446,  454, 

455,  465,  467,  489,  506;  iii.  31, 
55,  151,  152,  184,  194,  199,  210, 
219,  227,  359,  360,  364,  368,  373  : 
Penitential,  i.  cxvii-cxix,  clxxviii  ; 
iii.  238-261,  364. 

Theodore,  Archbishop  of  Ravenna, 
ii.  78. 

Theodore,  Bishop,  ii.  78. 

Theodore,  Bishop  of  Theopolias,  ii. 
81. 

Theodore,  Patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, ii.  65,  68,  69,  79-81. 

Theodore,  priest  of  Ravenna,  ii.  78. 

Theodoric  ill.,  King  of  the  P'ranks, 
i.  clxxxi ;  ii.  55,  56. 

Theodoric  IV.,  King  of  the  Franks,  i. 
clxxxii. 

Theodosius  iii.,  Emperor,  i.  xiii, 
clxxxii ;  ii.  343,  486. 

Theodotus,  ii.  325. 

Theokus,  ii.  389. 

Theonas,  i.  172. 

Theophilus,  Patriarch  of  Alexandria, 

ii-  315- 
Theophylactus,  Archdeacon  of  Rome, 

iii.  388. 
Theophylactus,  Exarch  of  Ravenna, 

ii.  351; 
Theopolias,  ii,  81. 
Therfuse,  iii.  269. 
Thessalonica,  ii.  79' 
Thetford,  iii,  216,  223,  390. 
Thillo,  see  Theau. 
Thomas,  Archbishop  of  York,  i,  64. 
Thomas,  Bishop   of  East  Anglia,  i. 

cv,  clxxxiv. 
Thomas,  St.,  iii,  94. 
Thomas  of  Elmham,  i,    cxv,    cxxvi, 

cxxxiv-cxxxvi, 
Thomas  of  Ely,  iii.  347. 
Thomas  of  Lancaster,  St.,  i.  Ixxvii- 

Ixxix. 
Thorney  (Ancarig),  i.   137  ;  iii.  215, 

359,  387. 
Thorneyburn,  iii.  351. 


Thorns,  Crown  of,  ii,  273,  274. 

Thorpe,  ii,  45. 

Thorpe,    Benjamin,    Works,    i.    cxx, 

clxxvi. 
Thoughts,  evil,  iii.  243. 
Thrace,  ii,  326. 

"Three  Chapters,"  i.  xx  ;  ii.  349. 
Throkonholt,  i.  332. 
Thunor,  murderer,  i.    247  ;   iii.  225, 

226, 
Thunorslaw,  iii.  226. 
Thunorsleap  (Thunersleap),  iii.  225, 

226. 
Thuringia,  i.  299,  301. 
Thurstan,  iii.  166. 
Tibba,  Abbot,  ii,  232. 
Tibba,  nun,  iii.  210. 
Tiberina,  i,  257. 
Tiberius    III.    (Apsimar),    i,    Ixxxix, 

clxxxi ;  ii.  340. 
Tiberius,   son   of  Justinian,    ii.    341, 

353. 
Tidbald,  Abbot,  i.  clxxii. 
Tidhild,  iii.  190. 
Tilaburg,  i.  150. 
Tilbury,  West,  i.  150. 
Tilda,  nun,  iii.  210. 
Tillath,  river,  i.  clxi. 
Tineham,  i.  83. 

Tinemouth,  Lothian,  i.  83,  84. 
Tiningham,  iii,  13,   16,  42,  118,  131, 

208. 
Tirconell,  ii.  152, 
Tirhtil,  see  Tyrhtel. 
Tisbury,  ii,  444, 

Tithes,  ii,  176-178  ;  iii.  250,  259,  260. 
Titillus,  notary,  ii.  23,  30. 
Titus,  Abbot  of  Glesconia,  iii.  197. 
Tivide,  river,  iii.  13. 
Tlemcen,  ii.  339. 
Tobar-Flannain,  i.  197. 
Tobias,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  i.  cxxxix, 

clxxv,  clxxxiv,  clxxxv  ;  ii.  161,  363, 

364- 

Tohrtete,  see  Torhtheras. 

Tolarcain,  see  Talorcan. 

Toledo,  ii.  3-6,  12-20,  61,  345-347- 

Tondbercht,  Prince,  ii.  36. 

Tondheri,  i.  80. 

Tone,  river,  ii.  450. 

Tonsure,  i.  27,  95,  97,  158,  167,  168, 
196,  200,  205,  288,  352  ;  ii.  309- 
312,  315,  316,  403,  406,  408,  487, 
488,  490  ;  iii.  137-139,  255,  256. 

Tonsuring  a  captive  King,  ii.  ^^ii, 
512. 

Torctgyd,  iii.  231. 

Torhelm,  see  Tyrhtel. 

Torhtheras  (Tohrtete,  Tortelre,  Tor- 


INDEX 


439 


there,  Totta),  Bishop  of  Hereford, 

i.  clxxi ;  ii.  399,  400. 
Torhtsuid  (Torhtsid),  i.  93  ;  iii.  192. 
Tortelre,  see  Tyrhtel. 
Tortelre,  see  Torhtheras. 
Torthelm,  Abbot,  ii.  258  ;  iii.  365. 
Torthelm,  see  Torhtheras. 
Torthere,  see  Torhtheras. 
Torture,  iii.  167. 
Tostig,  i.  86. 
Totta,  see  Torhtheras. 
Totteridge,  iii.  390. 
Toul,  ii.  58  ;  iii.  362. 
Toulouse,  i.  295. 
Tours,  ii.  8,  70,  275  ;  iii.  348. 
Trades  of  monks,  ii.  257. 
Traditions,  i.  xci. 
Transubstantiation,  i.  Ixxiv,  Ixxv. 
Treneglos,  iii.  221. 
Trent,  i.  100  ;  ii.  502. 
Trent,  battle,  ii.  41,  42. 
Trentham,  iii.  390. 
Treves,  i.  64. 
Triads,  i.  16. 
Trickingham  (Trytengeham),  iii.  220, 

390-  . 
Trigamists,  iii.  247. 

Trimma,  iii.  200. 

Trinity,  ii.  60;  iii.  241. 

TripoHs,  i.  230,  235. 

Trollus,  i.  235. 

Trumberct,  i.  361. 

Trumberht,  see  Tunberht. 

Trurahere,     Bishop     of     Mercia,     i. 

clxxxv,  218,  219,  223,  378,  379. 
Trumwine  (Tuma),  Bishop,  i.  clxxiv  ; 

ii.   103,    105,    no,   III  ;  iii.  2,  31, 

199,265,311. 
Trytengeham,  see  Trickingham. 
Trythgifu,  see  Leobgytha. 
Tscheques,  i.  298, 
Tuam,  i.  102. 
Tuda  (Tydi),   Bishop  of  Lindisfarne, 

i.    cxxxiv,    clxxxv,    204-207,    212, 

307,  332  ;  ii.  403  ;  iii.  358. 
Tudy,  St.,  iii.  358. 
Tuma,  see  Trumwine. 
Tunberht    (Trumberht),     Bishop     of 

Hexham,   i.    Ixxxiv,  clxxxvi,  378  ; 

ii.  103,  104,  256  ;  iii.  31,  32. 
Tunna,  ii.  127. 
Tunnacaestir,  ii.  128. 
Tunstall,  Bishop,  iii.  94. 
Turks,  i.  299, 

Tweed,  i.  22  ;  ii.  516  ;  iii.  4,  5,  13. 
Tweedmouth,  iii.  5. 
Twickenham,  i.  clxix  ;  ii.  424. 
Twyford,  i.  clxxiv;  ii.  105;  iii.  31. 
Tydi,  see  Tuda. 


Tydlin,  ii.  lOO. 

Tylsius,  i.  So. 

Tyne,  i.  12,  14,  84,  89  ;  iii.  366. 

Tynemouth,  i.  84-90. 

Tyrhtel  (Tirhtil,  Tortelre,  Tyrctil, 
Tyrhtel,  Tyrhthelm,  Torhelm), 
Bishop  of  Hereford,  i.  cliii,  clx ; 
ii.  399. 

Ualchstod,  Bishop,  see  Wahlstod. 

Uchtred,  i.  cxxx. 

Udine,  i.  71. 

Uerburga,  see  Werburga. 

Uffings,  i.  48. 

Ulric,  Bishop  of  Augsburg,  iii.  339. 

Ulster,  ii.  152. 

Ultan  (Ulton),  artist,  iii.  113,  133. 

Ultan,  brother  of  Fursey,  i.  115,  116, 

119;  ii-  453  ;  iii-  352- 
Ultramontanism,  i.  204  ;  ii.  97,  249. 
Untidiness  and  humility,  i.  286. 
Unwana,  Bishop,  i.  clxvi. 
Unwana,  monk,  i.  cxxxii. 
Upland,  ii.  415. 
Upminster,  i.  cxxxix. 
Urbgen,  King  of  North  Wales,  i.  75. 
Urien  of  Rheged,  i.  75. 
Uron  the  domestic,  i.  301. 
Ushaw  College,  iii.  99. 
Ussher,  Archbishop,  iii.  272. 
Utrecht,  iii.  332. 
Utta,  Abbot  of  Gateshead,  i.  76,   77, 

123. 
Uuthgirete,  King,  ii.  430. 

Valay,  iii.  133. 

Valens,  Emperor,  i.  260,  261. 

Varnucion,  ii.  339. 

Vaser,  ii.  266. 

Vegetarianism  in  Basil's  Rule,  i.  285. 

Venables,  E.,  i.  clxxvi. 

Venantius,  i.  169. 

Venice,  i.  72. 

Venta,  see  Winchester. 

Verca  (Werca),  Abbess,  iii.  47,   72, 

87,  208. 
Vergoanum,  i.  169. 
Vermund,  i.  93. 
Vermundesei,  see  Bermondsey. 
Versification,  Latin,  iii.  375,  376. 
Vespers,  i.  276,  277. 
Vestments,  St.  Cuthberht's,  iii.  70-75, 

9S- 
Viaticum,  iii.  265. 

Vibald,  cor?ies,  i.  clxvi. 

Vicenza,  i.  72. 

Victorias,  ii.  488. 

Vieghelmestun,  i.  clxix. 

Vienna,  i.  Ixxiii. 


440 


INDEX 


Vienna,  ii.  9,  254  ;  iii.  359. 

Vieux-pont-en-Auge,  ii.  260. 

Vincent,  St.,  iii.  29. 

Virgin  birth,  ii.  337. 

Virgin,  cult  of,  i.  cliv  ;  ii.   352,   353, 

473>  474  ;  iii-  3^7- 
Virginity,  ii.  474,  477-48o ;  i"-.  233- 
Virginity  of  married  Queen,  ii.   36- 

38 ;  iii.  362. 
Virginity,  praise  of,  ii.  481-484. 
Visigoths,  Kings   of,  i.    xix,    clxxxi, 

clxxxii. 
Visionaries,  i.  103. 
Visions,  i.  Ixii-lxviii,    cxiv,    10,   45, 

56,  85,  97,  98,  102-114,  116,   118, 

363  ;  ii.  109,   156,  214,  230,  370, 

374-377,  379,  391,  393,  404,  405, 
412,  423,  447  ;  iii.  4,  57,  61,  122- 
130,  132,  135,  136,  140,  141,  164, 
168,  195,  199,  200,  206,  207,  211, 
212,  228,  231-233,  263,  392,  393. 

Vitalian,  St.,  Pope,  i.  cxxiv,  clxxxi, 
234,  238,  239,  251-253,  288,  305  ; 
ii.  64,  66,  363,  369. 

Vows,  iii.  250,  260. 

Waberthwaite,  i.  133. 

Wahlstod  (Eahlston,  Ualchstod, 
Wahlstodus,  Wahlston),  Bishop  of 
the  Hecanas,  ii.  400,  401  ;  iii.  44. 

Waimar,  Bishop  of  Troyes,  ii.  90  ; 
iii.  363. 

Wakering,  i.  248. 

Walafrid  Strabo,  i.  xcvii. 

Walbottle  (Ad  Murum),  i.  99,   123, 

139- 
Walcher,  Bishop  of  Durham,  i.  86  ; 

ii.  278,  279. 
Waldhere  (Waldar,  Waldere),  Bishop 

of    London,    i.    cliii,    cliv,    clxix, 

clxx,    clxxii,    clxxxiv,    clxxxv ;    ii. 

364,  422-424,  446,  494  ;  iii.  212. 
Wale,  Abbess,  iii.  233. 
Wales,  i.  8,   15,  132,  319,  320;  iii. 

358,  366. 
Walkere,  John,  iii.  87. 
Walkington,  iii.  157. 
Walter,  Abbot  of  Evesham,  ii.  397. 
Waltheof,  Earl   of  Northumberland, 

i.  86  ;  iii.  15. 
Walton-le-Dale,  iii.  351. 
Walwick  Grange,  i.  12. 
Wamba,  King  of  Visigoths,  i.  clxxxi ; 

ii.  4. 
Wanborough,  ii.  380,  430. 
Wantage,  i.  41. 
Warbstow,  iii.  221. 
Warburton,  Warbuston,  iii.  221,  390. 
Wareham,  i.  202 ;  ii.  464,  465. 


Warin,  Abbot,  ii.  499. 

Warkworth,  ii.  513. 

Warner,  monk,  iii.  223. 

Wash,  The,  iii.  210. 

Water-pot,  ii.  498. 

Water-supply,  miraculous,  iii.  186. 

Watsingaham,  i.  clxxii. 

Watson,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
iii.  98. 

Watton  (Wetadun),  iii.  155,  204. 

Wattus,  King,  i.  cxlviii-cl. 

Waves  controlled  by  St.  John  of 
Beverley,  iii.  167-169. 

Weald  of  Kent,  ii.  112. 

Wearmouth,  i.  xxxiii,  Ixxxiii,  xciii, 
cix,  cxxviii ;  ii.  156,  193,  196,  257, 
258,  272,  273,  278-286,  288,  291- 
293,  298,  299,  318,  321  ;  iii.  6, 
94,  148-151,  208,  266,  321,  332, 
365,  366. 

Weasel  nests  in  Cuthberht's  coffin, 
iii.  67. 

Weastmeon,  i.  336. 

Wedale,  i.  130. 

Wedring,  river,  i.  clxviii. 

Weedon,  iii.  220,  388. 

Weem,  iii.  36. 

Weingarten,  i.  64,  71. 

Welland,  ii.  416. 

Wells,  holy,    i.    197  ;   ii.    173,    427, 

499  ;  iii-  352,  354,  35^,  373- 
Welmesforde,  i.  332. 
Welsh,  i.  52,  326  ;  iii.  357,  358. 
Welwick,  iii.  155. 
Wenlock,  i.  cxiv;  iii.  184,  210,  21 1, 

390. 
Wensley,  ii.  503. 
Wenturnia,  see  Wimborne. 
Werburga     (Uerburga),      Queen     of 

Kent,  i.  cxxxix. 
Werburga,    Queen    of    Mercia    and 

Abbess,  ii.  380. 
Werburga  (Werburgh),  St.,  i.  121  ;  iii. 

220,  221,  388-390. 
Werburglingham,  iii,  221. 
Werburgmore,  iii.  221. 
Werca,  see  Verca. 
Wercworde,  ii.  513. 
Werfrith,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  i.  cii. 
Wergild,  ii.  42,  357,  429. 
Wermund,  see  Guerdmund. 
Werner's  Beda,  i.  clxxvi. 
Wessex,  i.  xxix,  xxx,  cv,  I,  7,  35-46, 

138,  185,  307,  320-328,  336,   365, 

366  ;  ii.  31,  32,  44,  50,  51,  74,  118- 

125,  130,  137,  138,  356-373,  426- 

502  ;  iii.  237,  357,  358. 
Wessex,     Bishops     of,     i.     clxxxiv, 

clxxxv. 


INDEX 


441 


"Wessington,  Prior,  iii.  58. 

West  Halton,  iii.  390. 

West  Ilsley,  i.  41. 

West  Quantoxhead,  iii.  390. 

Westana;,  i.  clxvii  ;  ii.  126. 

Westbury,  ii.  496. 

Westminster,  i.  clxxii. 

Westmorland,  i.  132  ;  iii.  303. 

Westoue,  iii.  147. 

Wetadun,  see  Wat  ton. 

Wetheral,  i.  368. 

Wettingen,  i.  64. 

Wexford,  Warwickshire,  iii.  211. 

Whatlon-in-the-Vale,  iii.  171. 

Whip,  schoolmaster's,  ii.  369. 

Whippingham,  iii.  227,  391. 

Whitby  (Streoneshalch,  etc.),  i.  xxxv, 
Ixxxvi,  cxxv,  cxxxiv,  98,  154,  165, 
185-196,  204,  210,  219,  225,   226, 

323-325>  370,  371  ;  ii.  53,  67,  no, 
185,  252,  279,  384,  440;  iii.  17, 
152,  171,  184,  190-194,  197-201, 
262,  265,  266,  357,  358,  388,  389. 

White  garments  at  Whitsuntide,  iii. 
260. 

White  Lyne  Common,  i.  339. 

Whitherne  (Candida  Casa,  Rosnat),  i. 
71  ;  iii.  34,  37-40,  61,  141. 

Whittingham,  ii.  105,  513. 

Whittingham,  Dean,  iii.  90. 

Whittlesea,  iii.  387. 

Wiburga,  St.,  iii.  54. 

Wicanho,  i.  136. 

Wicbold,  i.  clvi. 

W^iccia,  see  Hwiccas. 

Wick,  iii.  36. 

Wicred,  i.  xcviii. 

Wictberct,  see  Wiehtbert. 

Wictred,  see  Wihtred. 

Widmundesfelt,  i.  clxviii. 

Wido,  Abbot,  ii.  369,  372. 

Wiehtberht  (Wictberct),  Abbot  of 
Fritzlar,  ii.  403,  406  ;  iii.  236. 

Wigferth,  ii.  413. 

Wighard,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
i.  251,  252. 

Wighard  (Wigherd),  sub-regulus,  i. 
cxlvii,  clxv. 

Wight,  Isle  of,  i.  cv,  327,  336;  ii. 
1 1 3-1 15,  134-138,  447-449- 

Wightham,  ii.  122. 

Wigorne,  Wigornia,  see  W^orcester. 

Wihtberga,  nun,  i.  121. 

Wihtred  (Wictred,  Witred,  Wythred), 
King  of  Kent,  i.  cxxxvii-cxl,  clxix, 
clxxiii,  clxxxii,  clxxxv  ;  ii.  32,  125, 

357-359,  361,  363,  364. 
Wilbarston,  i.  154. 
Wilberht,  Abbot,  i.  Ixxxvii. 


Wilburga,  ii.  44. 

Wilcoma,  Abbess  of  Chelles,  iii.  226. 

Wilden,  St.,  ii.  243. 

Wildman,  Mr.,  i.  clxxvi. 

Wilfarsesdun,  i.  79,  80,  154,  155;  iii. 

351- 
Wilfars  Hill,  i.  79. 
Wilfred,  dtix,  i.  clxiv. 
Wilfrid,  Abbot,  ii.  171,  413. 
Wilfrid  the  younger,  Abbot  of  Canter- 

bur}-,  iii.  227. 
Wilfrid,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  i.  clvii. 

clxi,  clxxxvi. 
Wilfrid  II.,  BishopofYork,  i.  clxxxvi ; 

ii.    244  ;    iii.    152,    162,    171,    172, 

193- 

Wilfrid,  St.,  i.  xxxviii,  ciii,  ex,  cxxix, 
cxlix,  clxv,  clxvii,  clxviii,  clxxii, 
clxxiii,  clxxxv,  clxxxvi,  156-227, 
237,  337,  350,  352,  366-384  ;  ii.  I- 
252,  256,  272,  286,  360,  361,  364, 
378,  379,  381,  384,  429,  448,  471, 
490,  495'  506,  515  ;  iii.  8,  139,  140, 
151,  152,  194,  199,  200,  359:  lives 
by  Bede  and  /Eddi,  etc.,  i.  ex,  cxii : 
birth,  i.  161  :  at  court,  i.  161  :  edu- 
cation, i.  161,  162  ;  iii.  193  :  at 
Canterbury,  i.  162,  163  :  friend- 
ship with  Benedict  Biscop,  i.  163  ; 
ii.  257  :  visit  to  Rome,  i.  162-164  : 
collects  relics,  i.  65,  165  ;  ii.  89, 
213  :  at  Lyons,  i.  162,  163,  165-167: 
receives  Roman  tonsure,  i.  167:  re- 
turns to  England,  i.  182  :  scholar- 
ship, i.  183  :  friendship  with  King 
Alchfrid,  i.  183,  184,  221  :  Abbot 
of  Ripon,  i.  184,  216:  ordained 
priest,  i.  185,  324  :  at  the  Synod  of 
Whitby,  i.  185-196:  views  on 
Easter,  i.  189-195;  ii.  201  :  elected 
Bishop  of  York,  i.  208,  209,  222  : 
consecrated  bishop,  i.  208-21 1,  325, 
326,  354  :  rival  bishop  appointed, 
i.  214  :  shipwrecked  off  Sussex,  i. 
214,  215,  327  :  acts  as  chorepis- 
copus,  i.  216,  217,  251,  307,  308, 
3^7,  329,  349;  ii-  184-186,  227: 
friendship  with  Wulfhere,  i.  216  : 
retires  to  Ripon,  i.  216:  suggested 
return  to  York,  i.  225  :  enmity  with 
Oswy,  i.  225  :  actual  Bishop  of 
York,  i.  366,  367,  381-384  ;  ii. 
183,  228 :  work  as  a  builder  of 
churches  and  monasteries,  i.  xxxvi, 
clxviii,  330,  334,  367-381  ;  ii.  117, 
118  :  book  collector  and  donor,  i. 
380 :  absent  from  Synod  of  Herut- 
ford,  ii.  22,  24  :  quarrel  with 
Ecgfrid  and  friendship  with  i^thel- 


VOL.  III. 


-29 


442 


INDEX 


dreda,  ii.  36-39,  254  ;  iii.  206,  214, 

362  :  expelled  from  Northumbria, 
ii-  39>  53  '  claims  York  to  be  a 
Metropolitan  see,  ii.  52,  93 ;  iii. 
357  '•  opposes  division  of  his  diocese, 
i.  XXX,  xlii ;  ii.  54  :  appeal  to  Rome 
and  journey  there,  ii.  54-59,  82- 
96:  attempts  to  murder  him,  ii.  33, 
55,  90 ;  iii.  363  :  prophecies,  ii. 
54,  55  :  in  Friesland,  ii.  56,  57  : 
friendship  with  Dagobert,  King  of 
Austrasia,  ii.  57,  58,  90,  91  : 
declines  bishopric  of  Strassburg,  ii. 
58  :  in  Lombardy,  ii.  58,  59 :  at 
the  Roman  Synod,  ii.  jy,  78  ;  iii. 

363  :  imprisonment,  ii.  92,  97-101, 
228  :  miracles,  ii.  98-101,  116,  222, 
238-242  ;  iii.  214  :  ambition  to  be 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  ii.  93  : 
in  Mercia,  i.  329,  330;  ii.  lOi,  102, 
216  :  in  Wessex,  ii.  102  :  in  Sussex, 
ii.  102,  113-118,  132,  133  :  be- 
haviour towards  ^Ethelwalch,  ii. 
132-134:  as  a  "saint,"  i.  xli  ;  ii. 
133,148  :  friendship  with  Caedwalla, 
ii.  132-134,  147,  148  :  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  ii.  135:  return  to  Northum- 
bria, ii.  147  :  friendship  with  Ald- 
frid,  ii.  156,  180,  181  :  reconciled 
with  Theodore,  ii.  157,  158  :  re- 
stored to  York,  ii.  158  :  Bishop  of 
Hexham,  ii.  158,  159,  180,  228: 
causes  trouble  at  Lindisfarne,  ii. 
181,  228  ;  iii.  106  :  expelled  from 
Northumbria,  ii.  181  :  grievances, 
ii.  182-184:  returns  to  Mercia,  ii. 
184  :  Bishop  of  Leicester,  ii.  184- 
196  :  attempts  at  reconciliation  with 
Northumbria,  ii.  196:  at  the  Synod 
of  Austerfield,  ii.  196-202  :  expelled 
from  Northumbria,  ii.  202,  203 : 
vision  of  St.  Michael,  ii.  214,  230:  in 
Kent,  ii.  216  :  appeal  to  Rome  and 
journey  there,  ii.  202-220  :  return  to 
England,  and  message  to  Northum- 
bria, ii.  218  :  reception  by  Eadwulf, 
ii.  221  :  his  son,  ii.  221,  250,  251  ; 
iii.  364  :  control  of  Osred,  ii.  222, 
504  :  restored  to  his  monasteries, 
ii.  227,  228  :  vicissitudes  as  a 
bishop,  ii.  228,  229  :  communica- 
tions with  Bede,  ii.  229, 230  :  illness 
and  death,  ii.  230-235  :  burial,  ii. 
236,  237  :  epitaph,  ii.  237  :  relics, 
ii.  238,  241-245  ;  iii.  172  :  appears 
in  a  vision,  ii.  240,  241  :  career  and 
character,  i.  xli,  xlii ;  ii.  245-252  : 
churches,  ii.  246,  247  :  dedications, 
ii.  247  :  enemies,  ii.  249  ;  iii.  364  : 


Benedictine  Rule  confined   to   his 

monasteries,  i.    xli ;  iii.    loi,    102, 

360  :  banner,  iii.  166. 
Wilfrid,  son  of  Saint,  ii.  221,  250,  251 ; 

iii.  364. 
Wilfrith,  see  Wilfrid. 
Will,  God's,  ii.  79. 
William   the    Conqueror,    i.    86 ;   ii. 

"5.  397,  498;  iii.  165. 
William  II.,  i.  89  ;  ii.  500;  iii.  391. 
William  the  Lion,  ii.  107. 
William,  Archbishop   of  Canterbury, 

iii.  76.  q 

William,  Bishop  of  Durham,  i.  62'; 

iii.  86. 
William,  Prior  of  Redeford,  ii.  136. 
William      of      Malmesbury's       Ges^a 

Pontificutyi,  cxv,  cxl. 
Willibald,  St.,  iii.  304. 
Willibrord    (Willebrord),    Archbishop 

of  Utrecht,  i.  xxxviii,  65,   74,  137  ; 

ii.  56,  203,  234,  402,  406. 
Wills,  Two,  i.  xxxii. 
Wilnothe,  Abbess,  i.  cxxxix. 
Wilton,  iii.  59. 
Wiltshire,  ii.  119,  447,  491. 
Wiltzi,  i.  298. 
Wimbert,  see  Winberht. 
Wimborne  (Winborna),  i.  cxliv,  234- 

237,    494;  ii-    439;   iii-    183,   184, 

190,  233,  235,  236,  347. 
Winberht  (Wimbert),  i.  cxlii,    clxxi ; 

iii.  348. 
Winchanheale,  i.  205. 
Winchcombe,  ii.  278. 
Winchester   (Venta,    Wintanchester), 

i.   cxxxii,  clxvi,  clxvii,  36,   43-46, 

323-325,    366;    ii.    34,    113,    430, 

441,  444,  446,  448.  _ 
Winchester   monk   visits   Cuthberht's 

shrine,  iii.  64. 
Wind  as  the   voice  of  God,  i.  361- 

363- 
Windermere,  ii.  507. 
Wine,  i.  29  ;  ii.  333. 
Winfrid,  ii.  458,  460. 
Winfrith,  see  Boniface,  St. 
Wing,  ii.  196. 
Wini   {Ouini,  Owin),  Queen  yEthel- 

drytha's  bailiff,  i.  358  ;  iii.  218,  219. 
Wini,   Bishop  of  London,  i.   clxxxiv, 

209,  212,  213,   224,   249,  307,  323- 

325,  331,  354,  358,    359,  365;  ii- 

10,  24,  25,  34,  440. 
Wintanchester,  see  Winchester. 
Winwsed,    battle,    i.    127,    131,   217- 

220;  ii.  417,  418;  iii.  189. 
Winwick,  i.  50,  52-54,  70. 
Winwick  (Wenlock),  iii.  210. 


INDEX 


443 


Wisbeach  (Wisbece),  i.  332. 

Wistan,  St.,  iii.  386. 

Wita,  Bishop,  i.  clxxi. 

Witan,  i.    247  ;  ii.    91,  92,  96,    174, 

198,  226. 
Witham,  ii.  122. 
Withburga  (Withgytha),  St.,  iii.   203, 

222,  223  ;  see  also  Huoetburga. 
Withburga,  sister,  ii.  435. 
Withburgestowe,  iii.  222. 
Withgytha,  see  Withburga. 
Withington    (Wudiandum),    i,     clxi, 

clxii  ;  ii.  462  ;  iii.  370. 
Witlesmere,  i.  332. 
Witmcer  (Witmar),  iii.  149,  150. 
Witred,  see  Wihtred. 
Wittering,  i.  202. 
Wittheham,  ii.  120. 
Wittiza,    King    of    the   Visigoths,    i. 

clxxxi,  clxxxii. 
Wocchingas,  see  Woking. 
Woden,  i.  48. 
Wodnesbeorh  (Wodnesburgh),  ii.  380, 

430- 
Woking  (Wocchingas),  i.  cxxx. 
Wollaton,  iii.  332. 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  ii.  39,  250. 
Women  in  the  church,  iii.  254,  255. 
Women   not    to    dress    as   men,    ii. 

336. 
Women,  St.  Cuthberht  and,  iii.   13- 

16. 
Wool-working  by  nuns,  iii.  177. 
Wooler,  iii.  10. 
Woolton,  i.  cxI. 
Wor,  Bishop,  see  Ealdwine. 
Worcester  (Wigornia),  cxiii,   civ,  328  ; 

"•    385,    389-392;    iii.    172,    347, 

361. 
Worcester,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxvi. 
Worcestershire,  i.  328  ;  ii.  186,  388. 
Wordsworth,  W.,  iii.  273. 
Worksop,  iii.  55. 
Worth,  ii.  196. 
Wothgar,  i.  347. 
Wrangham,  iii.  3. 
Wressle,  iii.  171. 
Wright,    Biographia    Britannica,    i. 

clxxvi. 
Writing     materials     at     Lindisfarne, 

i.  30. 
Wudehin,  i.  clxxii. 
Wudiandum,  see  Withington. 
Wueogorna,  see  Worcester. 
Wulcker,  i.  clxxvi. 


Wulfard,  Abbot,  ii.  444. 

Wulfhere,  brother  of  Nunna,  i.  cl. 

Wulfhere  (Wulfred),  King  of  Mercia, 
i.  cxxxiii,  cxxxiv,  cxlvii,  clix,  clxv, 
clxxi,  clxxii,  clxxxiii,  121,  136,  182, 
216,  218,  222-225,  307,  319,  324, 
326,  327,  329-336,  348,  349,  356, 

365  ;  11-  34,  35,  41,  43,  44,  46-48, 
113,  114,  205,  217,  T^Ti,  374,  380, 
401,  449;  ni.  57,  209,  220,  362. 

Wulfhild,  iii.  190. 

Wulfred,  Bishop,  see  Wynfrid. 

Wulfred,  King,  see  Wulfhere. 

Wulmar,  St.,  ii.  139. 

Wundecester,  ii.  513. 

Wylam,  iii.  351. 

Wynberht,  Abbot,  i.  clxxii. 

Wynfrid  (Winfrith,  Wulfred),  Bishop 
of  Lichfield,  i.  clix,  clxxv,  clxxxv, 
365  ;  ii.  22,  33,  34,  52,  55  ;  iii.  361, 
362. 

Wynfrid,  Wynfrith,  see  Boniface,  St. 

Wyntryngham,  iii.  213. 

Wythred,  "  King  of  Kent,"  i.  cxxxvii; 
see  also  Wihtred. 

Yarm,  iii.  31. 

Yealands,  iii.  56. 

Yolfrida,  nun,  iii.  157. 

York,  i.  xxxix,  Ixxxiv,  cxii,  cxxiv, 
cxxv,  7,  34,  126,  185,  207,  20S, 
212,  222,  381-384  ;  ii.  54,  55,  84, 
93,  108,  160,  183,  206,  208,  228, 
243,  279,  366,  384,  472;  iii.  31, 
40,  56,  91,  92,  131,  132,  161,  168, 
266,  303,  360. 

York,  Archbishop,  first,  ii.  514,  515  ; 
iii.  173. 

York,  Bishops  of,  i.  clxxxv,  clxxxvi. 

York,  metropolitan,  i.  xlvii,  xlviii, 
382  ;  ii.  24,  52,  175,  184,  185. 

Yorkshire,  i.  3,  5,  8,  324  ;  iii.  308. 

Yorkshire,  first  church,  i.  22. 

Ythancaester  (Bradwell,  Ythancaestir, 
Ythanchester),  i.  142-150  ;  ii.  189. 

Yulloch,  i.  cviii. 

Yverwin,  ii.  90. 

Yvo  decretals,  i.  cxxiv. 


Zacharias,    Pope,     i.     287  ;    ii.    162  ; 

iii,  160. 
Zachary,  leg  at  Durham,  i.  67. 
Zodiac,  signs,  ii.  445,  476. 
Zonaras,  i.  233. 


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